Here I Am, Dying
by Apocalyptical Angel
Summary: Seeking a legendary stone, Klaus crosses the wrong witch. Thankfully, Caroline's recruited on his road to recovery.
1. Heartbeat

**Here I am, dying.**

 **Summary:** Seeking a legendary stone, Klaus crosses the wrong witch. Thankfully, Caroline's recruited on his road to recovery.

 **Rating:** M (Sexual situations, bad language and violence/death)

 **Pairing:** Klaus and Caroline (Klaroline because they are so damn cute, right?)

 **Warning:** Klaus is emotionally abusive to Caroline at times.

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own or claim to own any rights to the characters or televisions shows. I am playing with borrowed characters and make no profit from the work but smiles.

Note: I have penned this entire story in 10 chapters (the plot ran away with me, I only intended a short 3 chapter thing when I started) but they all need proofing and checking for plot holes. So, it will be a slow upload, like one per month kind of thing. But it is all done. Mostly.

* * *

 **Chapter One: Heartbeat**

The trunk of the car lifted, the blonde inside was offered a hand. Said hand received a burning glare than ran along its length and back to the sympathetic smile on its owner.

"My apologies for the travel arrangements." Elijah greeted her.

Caroline ignored the assistance and pulled herself out of the trunk. She straightened out to stand on the gravel driveway, clocking the start of a sunrise in the dark sky and placing her travel time at just a little under four hours. Not that she had been conscious for the first hour, thanks to the broken neck that was now just an irritating tickle along her spine.

"Oh please." Both eyes turned to the speaker. "She knew the score." Rebekah stepped from the driver's side and met Caroline's piercing stare. Without recognition or even a dash of fear, Rebekah stood up toe to toe with Caroline. "Besides, I offered for her to ride up front like a civilised person."

"You snapped my neck." Caroline hissed when Rebekah dismissingly walked past her, Caroline followed at her heels.

"Not instantly." Rebekah offered as a fleeting defence, not even paying attention as she grabbed her handbag from the passenger seat, where Caroline _should_ have been sat.

"You knocked on my door, shot out some ridiculously confusing and _extremely_ ambiguous statement about god knows what and then killed me when I didn't instantly start packing to join you."

"Like I said." Rebekah turned to the kidnapped vampire with a fake smile. "I offered." Rebekah grabbed the suitcase Caroline recognised as her own and held it out.

Elijah took it from her, ever the gentleman, even in criminal pursuits.

"Please come inside, Caroline." he spoke calmly, like he was greeting an invited guest, not one shoved in the back of a car by his crazy sister.

Rebekah was already walking from sight, into the grand standing compound that bore the all too familiar badge of Michaelson honour and twisted family values.

Caroline mentally bet herself it was about Klaus.

There was a giddy feeling that bubbled inside her, one she instantly killed with her anger.

"One of you better start talking, or I am, absolutely out of here." Caroline ran her fingers through her hair only to get stuck in tangles. She added it to the ever-growing list of reasons she hated travelling in the trunk of a car.

"Please," Elijah encouraged, extending his hand towards the building.

Caroline followed his courtesy, if only because he hadn't had a hand in her kidnapping, and… curiosity.

Caroline couldn't help but be in awe of the tall gates, the heavy set stones and creepy ivy as she walked her way in, following her ears to where Rebekah was flipping the pages of something.

Sure enough, Caroline found her in the lounge (probably one of many considering the side of the place), stretched out on the sofa, turning the pages on a gossip magazine.

Elijah walked past her, unbuttoning his suit jacket with one hand before seating himself on a chair with much more elegance and dignity than his sibling. He wordlessly offered her to do the same.

Numbly, she did, but the original brother and sister seemed reluctant to offer the first words. The silence offset Caroline and she filled it.

"Okay, look, I get it." she began, her fingers mindlessly massaging the back of her neck. "Something happened with Klaus. I'm not stupid, and this is so obviously not a social call, so you need me for something. And since I'm not dead, bleeding or sitting with witches I think I can say it's not a magic thing, so… it's a Klaus thing." Nobody offered any corrections and Caroline chalked up a point of her intelligence. Now, where was the man in question?

Surely if he had been in the mansion upon her arrival, he would have made himself known.

Her insecurities faltered her ego for a second but it only made her more secure in her assumptions. Klaus would never let her come to him and then avoid her arrival; he'd want to be the first spectacle she saw. Probably be the one to pop the trunk and meet the end of her fist. "It's a Klaus thing." she confirmed softly to herself.

Caroline watched Elijah pass a glance to Rebekah and Bekah shoot him a disgruntled one back. "Okay, enough with the silence. I haven't gotten angry that you broke my neck." She threw her glance to Rebekah though she didn't seem bothered enough to do anything but raise an eyebrow back. "Or that you barged into my dorm at 2am. Or that you, most probably, compelled Elena to believe I was visiting my mother."

"Family out of state." Rebekah corrected.

"Or! That you shoved me in the trunk of your car without my mobile phone, or even a blood bag."

Caroline flinched, but caught the object- her mobile phone- that Rebekah tossed to her a millisecond later.

"There's blood in the fridge." Elijah offered with a smile. "Help yourself."

"Oh… thank you." His kind words had thrown her off her tirade. "I just wanted answers." she voiced, dejected.

"I can understand why you are upset." Elijah began once more. "And I can only apologise for how my sister chose to approach this situation." There he went again, smoothing over his families transgressions, perfectly calm and controlled in his voice and posture; like a god amongst men. But his calm approach worked, the lack of urgency reassured her that whatever she was needed for, it wasn't life or death serious. Whether that was true or not, she couldn't say, but for the moment, she felt her anxiety slip away. "However, this is, what you may call a _delicate situation_ ," So much for no anxiety, those words alone set her worry alive again. "We sadly could not risk that you would not assist us." Anxiety was rising still.

"With… what?" Caroline asked, apprehension in her words.

Elijah leant forward, hands templed as he rested his elbows on his knees.

"Just agree, you don't have any other ch-." Rebekah advised harshly as she flipped another page.

"I apologise for my sister once again." Elijah interjected. "Obviously, we would have preferred you come of your own volition, yet, it appears you are imperative as a remedy to our current situation. I fear we do not have the luxury of accepting your disagreement to provide support."

A lot of big words to justify her kidnapping.

"So you just abducted me?" Caroline asked, a little surprised Elijah would have had a hand in this plan.

"That was not the origin-"

"You didn't have your _happy to help_ face on." Rebekah explained in deadpan, cutting off her brother's rational approach in payback.

"Who does at 2 a-fucking-m?" Caroline snapped at her.

"Caroline, please." Elijah's soft voice lulled her temper once more.

"What situation?" she asked, containing her temper. "What _support_ am I providing?" repeated exasperated, sinking into acceptance.

What had begun as a confused conversation over the pretence of civility had turned into a whirlwind of potential dangers. All she knew was that it related to Klaus, who, for all she could tell, was absent from the mansion. "I'm tired, I'm hungry and I'm highly aware of the fact I'm sat here in Minnie Mouse pyjamas which although are comfy, they aren't exactly what I had planned for seeing Klaus again." Caroline caught herself, "Not that I planned on any other… you know-"

"Hungry?" Rebekah repeated to herself, setting the magazine on her lap with an amused smile playing on her lips.

"Rebekah, please be civilised. The aim is not to annoy him to death." Elijah chastised.

"I'm guessing the 'him' is Klaus, right?" Caroline muttered to herself, fully expecting the siblings to argue over her.

They did.

"Com'on Elijah, centuries of being his toy and you won't even consider this?" Rebekah protested.

"And pray tell sister, how do you believe he will react to your _behaviour_ when he returns to his usual state? Are you wishing to spend another one of these many centuries in a shipping container with a dagger through your chest?" The reminder put a dark shadow on Rebekah.

"What happened?!" Caroline snapped, breaking up the disagreement and physically standing between the Mikaelsons. "Either he's dying, or he's gone crazy mad and on a murderous rampage. So please, tell me what the hell you expect me to do to whatever the hell situation you won't tell me the hell about!" Honestly, she was tired. She had been looking forward to a shopping spree and a movie marathon today, instead, she was surrounded by a thousand questions spiralling out of control in a very active imagination.

"Caroline, please, take a seat." Elijah's answer to stress was a controlled order, but right now, it was rubbing her the wrong way.

"No, I'm good standing, all I want ar-"

"Answers." he finished for her, extending a hand back to the seat she had previously claimed. She accepted with a sigh and sunk back to the black fabric. "And you shall receive them, however, please understand they are of a rather _sensitive_ nature and obviously there are certain people we are hoping to keep such information away from."

"It's super-secret." she reiterated with a roll of her eyes. But only quite understood the extent of such when Rebekah darted out only to return a few seconds later with mud caked up her new season's designer boots.

"Clear." Rebekah reported, taking a seat and tilting her head slightly. Caroline recognised the gesture as seriously concentrated vampire hearing. She tuned in herself, listening to the sounds of the mansion. It all came with a rush; the running water of the heating system, the ticking clocks in various rooms, the useless breathing of the vampire siblings and one strong heartbeat thudding away upstairs. Probably the help… maybe a snack for Klaus.

Unless, maybe it was a new human fascination for him…

She swallowed hard. The siblings hadn't mentioned another woman.

"It appears our brother had a deal with a witch… which, it didn't end well, as you may be able to imagine with his tendency to approach disappointment with violence." Elijah began and Caroline tuned back into his voice.

"So Klaus pissed off a witch." Caroline summed all too easily, a laugh bubbling in her voice.

"Not just a witch." Rebekah added, her attention still far away, focussed on her hearing. "A whole ancestral line."

"I'd like to say I'm shocked, but… I was taught not to lie." Caroline quipped, finding it easier to relax in the chair now answers were coming her way. "So what, he went on a rampage, killed all the witches and… he can't calm back down?" she guessed. "He's got every witch in the city after him?" she continued when she didn't meet any response. "They kidnapped him and are holding him for some witchy ransom?" Her imagination was running away with her.

"Not quite." Elijah spoke, putting her back at ease from the nervous quiet. "It appears through channelling ancestral power, the witches were able to place a curse on our brother."

"Klaus is cursed?" She half wanted to laugh, the other half; the half that won, was concern. "With what? How is he?" Then panic. "Where is he?"

"He's safe." Elijah was quick to comfort, but the sentiment was ruined by the uneasy way he pulled to neaten the sleeves of his crisp white shirt. "However, as Klaus took the life of the witch's human husband, the ancestors thought it fitting he become that of which he discarded so easily."

"Woah." Caroline felt the realisation run through her like a lightning bolt. "Klaus is human?!" suddenly things were falling into the jigsaw of sense, making a shocking picture. Klaus. Human.

"It appears." Elijah summed, offering a partial smile to soothe her surprise.

"I can't believe this." She didn't even know how to begin processing that. "Like, completely human?" she probed.

"No vampire, no werewolf." Rebekah informed, dropping the intense hearing and lounging back. The danger had passed now the truth had been spilled and talk could be coded. "He wasn't above trying to reactivate his wolf curse." Not at all, Rebekah had stood by him when Klaus had taken a stranger's life in a back alley with a blade. Anything to break the curse.

It hadn't worked. He was human through and through.

"So what, you two are permanent guard duty against the horde out of Klaus' blood?" It was evident from the way they held themselves, ready for a fight. Even now as she looked around the room, she found several weapons all ready for action. "But, that still doesn't explain why I got the special invite to the party…"

"All magic has an escape clause." Elijah reminded her. "Niklaus was cursed because of his blatant disregard for human life. If there is a loophole, it would revolve around that."

"I'm still lost." Caroline admitted.

"You were the only human Klaus has ever respected."

"I'm not exactly human anymore." Caroline offered, feeling deflated.

"That being said, Niklaus responds well to you, despite having very little respect for anyone at all. However, you managed to earn some of that, even when possessed by the very human qualities that he despises."

"He… no. I mean… no." Caroline stumbled over a thousand memories trying to find evidence, but all her brain could stumble back to was one very memorable event in the woods, where he responded _very_ well to her. A memory she was trying to avoid.

"Niklaus surrenders his darker desires to be with you. Humanity will pose a dark threat to him, and he will pose a greater threat to himself. His feelings for you are likely to hold the solution." Elijah narrated, still unmoved from his chair, the teacup stationary in his hand.

"Klaus doesn't listen to anyone, least of all me." But all the statement earned was a raised eyebrow from the elder Mikaelson.

"He relented his centuries' long emotional torture of Katerina to _be with you_ for a night." The sentence slipped from Elijah's lips like it was the weather update. It threw Caroline completely.

"What, woah, ummm, personal." Her surprise fled and challenge seeped in. "How the hell did you even know about that?" Defence. "And it wasn't like it was all night or anything, it was one mistake... I was vulnerable and he was…" she stopped herself. "How did you know?! If he said an-"

"Oh please, Nik returned without a torture story to gloat about but a giant smile." Rebekah grinned. "Add a few sketches of a certain blonde and the maths added up." Rebekah had not been, and still was not, above snooping through Klaus' possessions while he was out. Apparently her brother was not above reliving his memories in pictorial form. In great detail.

Klaus might like to believe his sister didn't know his hiding places, but that just wasn't true. Besides, it was a sister's duty.

"Are you kidding?" Caroline groaned, dropping her head to her hands. "So what, I'm like his humanity guide?" she guessed through her hands. "I don't even know how. I mean, where do I start?" Klaus prided himself on being the monster that grown men feared, the myth of a man that distorted their nightmares. He had no respect for humanity and liked it perfectly well that way.

Rebekah offered an unhelpful shrug. "So you _kidnapped_ me to play Klaus' human instructor?"

"Unless you have a better idea?" Rebekah snapped, annoyed with the constant battery of questions. "I kidnapped you to fix my brother, I don't care how you do it. I don't care if you want to admit you fucked him or not." A chiding came from Elijah but Rebekah rolled on without listening to it. "I just need him back to himself so I don't have to spend the rest of his life standing outside his door stopping a very long list of enemies from slaughtering him. At the moment, the list of people who know his condition is limited to those standing in this room. We intend to keep it that way." With a short breath, she carried on. "The cure for this curse is buried between layers of double meaning in witchy code in centuries old spell books that Nik spends all his time yelling at. We don't have the years needed to translate it, and I refuse to sit by and wait it out, so since you are our best chance at him accepting any human feelings, you're staying here until you fix him." Rebekah's eyes pinned Caroline.

"Caroline." Elijah stepped in the sudden quiet. "We would appreciate your assistance with this. I understand you have had your differences with Niklaus, whatever they may be, surely you understand the gravity of the situation. Niklaus is vulnerable for the first time in a long long time. It is not a position he is familiar with and as you can imagine it is not one he enjoys being in. There are a numerous amount of people who wish him ill. With the curse, there is a chance one may succeed."

Caroline would deny it if asked, but something about Klaus's death did not sit well with her. She hadn't even thought it possible.

"Where is he?" she asked, still held heavily under Rebekah's gaze. The words seemed to soften her though, she stepped back and nodded to the stairs.

"Come meet the new Nik." Rebekah offered firmly, it didn't allow for any objection, just obedience.

Caroline stood numbly, her eyes rolling up the stairs. Her feet started walking and her vampire hearing shoved one last piece in the growing jigsaw.

The human heartbeat upstairs…

It was Klaus.


	2. Curse

You lovely readers and reviewers requested more so here I gift you chapter two.

I bet you are curious as to how a witch bested our dear Klaus. Worry no more, for I gift you the best tool in a writer's pencil case; a flashback!

* * *

 **Chapter Two: Curse**

 _Klaus rolled his eyes, turning back to the witch he'd struck his bargain with._

" _Like I said," He wasn't a fan of repeating himself, but apparently this little witch needed the constant motivation. "Your precious husband will live a happy and long life, as soon as you do as I ask and finish the spell."_

" _He's dying now." she snapped from the soon to be deathbed._

" _So act quickly." he simply advised with a smile on his face. As always, his way was coming back around as the only option. When she narrowed her eyes at Klaus, his temper boiled. "My blood is his only chance at life now. I can hear his heartbeat growing weaker and weaker the longer you continue this defiant charade. It's honourable to try and fight me, I even find it admirable, but the longer you hold onto this false sense of bravery, the further away your prize slips." He rolled a lazy hand over to the bloodbath with the fading pulse._

" _Have you no respect for human life?" But she stood with submission and Klaus grinned once more. Her feet made no noise as she walked across the wooden floors, not even to the hybrid king's hearing; witches' tricks no doubt._

" _On the contrary, I respect all flavours of food." The tease would be another nail in the coffin of anyone else, but Klaus couldn't find it in himself to fear such an easily manipulated witch. "Now if you'd please make some attempt at haste, I'm sure your husband would appreciate it." he reminded her sickly sweet._

 _The full moon held still above the small woodland cabin, vital to the spell she cast._

 _Klaus had one small trifle bothering him, ironically, he was relying on it right now to remedy it. Klaus could be affected by witch's magic, and it was setting him back in his plans. The Black Heart of Salam was a stone with legendary power said to make the bearer immune to any magic cast upon them. Klaus wanted it. Rumour stated witches of years ago had shattered it and hidden the pieces. This little descendant witch before him, was going to give him the ability to hear the call of the segments to reassemble them._

" _I need your blood." she announced, her voice quiet in the night, barely audible over the pained gasps for air from her partner. Her hands took down several jars and she flitted another glance to her husband; her reason for compliance. He was growing weaker, slipping away, even she could feel it._

" _And you shall have it, once everything else is prepared." he stated, observing the sadness in her posture as she pried her eyes away from the bloodied mess she had once said 'I do' to._

" _We need to be outside. Under the moon."_

" _Then out we go." He held open the door, but there was nothing chivalrous about it. She flowed through, barefoot to the dewy grass without hesitation. He followed with hands in his pockets, listening to the dying gurgle of blood in the lungs of the man. Out of sight, but he wouldn't be out of mind. "Time is of the essence." If she planned to save his life, she'd have to move a lot faster than this. He had maybe 30 seconds of life left. Klaus knew all too well the signs of death. He'd been the cause for most of those he'd witnessed._

 _She stood over a patch of grass, dropping handfuls of ingredients to the earth. A turn of the outdoor tap and a cup of water joined the mix._

 _A struck match added a brilliantly controlled crimson flame spiralling from the ground in the summoned wind._

" _Your blood. It will be done soon." she spoke, but it was without emotion, without feeling. With all the elements present, the concoction was ready for an incantation that would make the impressive pyrotechnic display a magical world changer._

 _Klaus's smile tore through his lips, his teeth ripping at his palm to upturn on the fire. As the first drop of his blood fell, his ears heard the change._

 _The bartering chip had died. A short last breath had gurgled out, his lungs drowned in blood; unable to function. Brain cells were being starved of necessary oxygen, vital organs were shutting down completely and brain functioning would quickly follow rendering him truly deceased._

 _He flashed his eyes to her, nothing in her posture said she was aware._

 _Regardless, she was committed now, she would finish the spell and she would return to a brooding life. Or… he could kill her anyway, save her coming back later with stronger magics…_

 _Then again, by then he'd have the stone and the protection he needed to make her harmless._

 _He tossed the query in his mind as his blood dripped, instantly consumed by the hungry flame._

 _She appeared none the wiser to the lack of life, as expected from someone without superior hearing._

 _He'd play it out as it happened. Who knows, he may kill her out of kindness; grief was a hell of an inescapable torturer._

 _But the Latin that slipped her lips came with hard set eyes echoing years of ancestral power. The words she freed from the dead witches possessing her mind were not to aid him. Quite the opposite._

 _A curse.  
Klaus struck, his body flickered from one spot to the other, the speed imperceptible even to vampire eyes. His teeth sunk into a delicate neck and tore through the vital carotid artery needed to keep her alive. Warm blood spurted hard to the back of his throat, the torn muscles vibrating softly against his lips as she tried to scream._

 _Usually he'd savour it, suck the pulsing artery dry and smile all the while._

 _But now, his line of Salem stone witches had run dry with her death._

 _Deeply unsatisfied, he dropped the corpse from his arms, letting it thud to the ground. The fire was gone, the ingredients spent and useless, not that he had the magic to replicate the spell, or the bloodline to focus the energy._

 _Anger burst through him, his foot kicking at the ashes, shooting them against the cabin wall._

 _Months of planning, years of tracking, centuries of dreaming. Wasted._

 _Klaus roared his disapproval to the heavens, the wolf in him bearing its teeth to the gods above._

 _His eyes fell and found the cabin standing strong and proud. A mockery against his failure._

 _Arson would do little to calm his fury, but it would leave the mark of truth; there was_ _ **nothing**_ _left of those who crossed Klaus Mikaelson._

 _He stepped inside the remote cabin, his fingers sweeping precious vases and ornaments to crash on the floor. Blood boiled, demanding he destroy anything he could._

 _He did._

 _He took chairs to walls, ripped rotting plumbing from the floors when the splintered wood cracked around it._

 _Glasses, plates, knives, all the kitchen cleaned out against the once cosy abode._

 _Though similar to a child mid-tantrum, Klaus knew it would not soothe him, and he knew it would not get him what he wanted. But if it helped him feel even the slightest bit better, then it was worth it._

 _Like a tornado, he wrecked the house, only stopping when he reached the last intact object._

 _The bed sat whole and healthy, the human atop it less lucky._

 _Klaus paused._

 _The things he could do._

 _The things he shouldn't do._

 _The things he wanted to do._

 _With a smug grin, he stepped to the carcass, with all intention of speeding it to the treeline of the properly, of stringing torn body parts from branches to float putrid on the wind._

 _Then, he'd turn the bed into kindling and start a bonfire to burn the witch._

 _But as he grabbed the arm of the man and turned to the door to speed out, a weight jarred him back._

 _He turned with a frown to the corpse._

 _Had he gone insane? It actually felt heavy._

 _He chuckled once, shrugging it off and tugged again._

 _But the strength was gone._

 _The body was a dead weight._

 _Klaus grabbed the shoulders, taking on more of the human yet the weight would only let him drag it across the floor. Where had his strength gone?_

 _Of course, the fucking witch._

 _In a blink he should have sped to her side, but like running through treacle he could not achieve what he wished._

 _No vampire speed, no vampire strength._

 _No werewolf sight, no werewolf sense of smell._

" _Fucking witches!" Klaus swore. The ancestral coven she had called must have given her the power to finish the curse as she died, and now… whatever her aim was, it was cast upon Klaus._

* * *

"I assure you, I am _still_ perfectly fine, Rebekah." Klaus snapped, not bothering to lift his eyes from his canvas.

Caroline stepped into the room, almost unable to believe her ears that identified the beating heart opposite her. Rebekah had pointed to the door and left her alone. Caroline had no doubt she would be downstairs listening to every second.

Caroline glanced around the room, there was very little evidence for Klaus' change, but what did she expect?

There were several discarded paintings with giant slashes through them. The gentle brush and pencil strokes he had previously caressed canvas with had turned harsh and unforgiving. Patterns were ruined, paints were brash, pencils had clearly snapped under tension. "Damn it Bekah, I am not in the mo-" he spat but turned to meet another blonde. "Caroline." His voice spoke awe, it whispered all the layers of emotion he wanted to show her and it embraced her with the memory of his touch.

But she watched his spirit flicker as he realised why she was there, the darting happiness fled fast; she wasn't there to accept his offer of a lifetime of adventure, she was there on his siblings demand. "Of course." he muttered. "Why not get maximum humiliation from this experience?" he complained to himself and turned to the oil painting. He panted out two rough breaths and the canvas was ripped from its perch and thrown clear across the room.

Caroline jumped at the sudden collision with the wall. "Have you come to gawk at the fascinating predicament I find myself in?" his self-deprecating humour was dark, sarcastic and clearly angered. "Are you here to remind me of what I've lost?" he challenged, stalking a step towards her, his eyes black stones. "Or perhaps you're here to torment me? Some twisted payback for my life. Well, please, go on ahead. I regret _nothing,_ and when my powers are returned I will regret _nothing_ I do then."

Caroline stood numbly where she was. She had no idea how to proceed. If you asked her a week ago what she thought Klaus would say to her when he saw her again, every one of her answers was dirty. Now, in the shadow of weakness and loss, he had no echo of sleaze. Just anger.

He looked as he usually did, as if he were the hybrid king on his bloody throne of skulls. He walked the same, phrased himself the same, but his beating heart was consumed by the darkness of his degradation.

The heartbeat quickened with anger, filling the room with the second noticeable change. Her hunger brought it to the front of her attention, but even fed she doubted she could ignore the scent. A sweet blood was running in his veins, calling her to feed, to taste, to sample the treat.

And she could.

The Mikaelson king was weaker than her.

Slower than her.

So much more vulnerable.

She couldn't begin to imagine the pain he felt at losing himself.

"Silent gawking it is." he summed bitterly, adding a scoff as he turned away. "Well, please, make yourself comfortable. I would hate for you to be pained while you amuse yourself." His feet walked him to the open windows and out to the balcony.

"Klaus…" she whispered. But with enhanced hearing gone, he couldn't even react to the small voice. She mutely followed him, finding him sat on a blanket on the floor. A blanket that was there for comfort, possibly warmth. Caroline had seen Klaus run through the woods shirtless with a grin. Now he would be forced into coats and gloves. Even the temperature would pose a threat. Though hidden from sight and wind by a thick stone wall, she still worried about him out there, shouldn't he be inside?

She watched as he pulled another book from the table to the floor with him, a carpet of literature already surrounding him. She watched as the motion caused the ornate china vase of wildflowers to rock. Reaching for it she caught Klaus' sharp judgemental eyes. She steadied it and prepared herself for one of the most awkward conversations of her life.

"Have you made any progress?" she asked. It was obvious the books were codex's stolen from various witches.

"Here to pity me?" he asked instead.

"I'm here to help." she corrected softly.

"How?" he shot out, closing the volume with a slam. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't remember you having any talent for Latin, Aramaic or any other ancient language. Unless of course you learnt overnight?" He rose an eyebrow, a knowing smirk plastered dirtily on his lips. "I didn't think so." He stood and she backed up a step out of habit. "I fail to see how you would be any help to me. Or… anybody else." His violent lashing cut at her self-esteem, something that hadn't happened since she became a vampire.

She let it slide. She couldn't imagine how hard it was for him to deal with such a drastic change of power. He'd gone from king to insect in a day.

On first sight she hadn't thought his appearance had changed, but now, a step away from him, she saw the dark circles under his eyes aging him for his true years. He looked like he hadn't slept a wink in days.

"Have you slept?" Instantly, she was flooded with concern.

"Leave Caroline. There is nothing you can do."

"You d-"

"Leave!" he cut her off. "I refuse to have you mother me like some pathetic child." he barked out, frightening her.

"I wasn't moth-"

"You're here to play nursemaid to the broken child. To have your pitiable wish of a pitiable man you can play house with." His body may lack the strength to kill bare handed, but his tongue was as vicious as ever. "I'm not playing. I don't care which one of my pandering siblings thought it a good idea to inform you of this, but you coming here was a stupid idea." he breathed out fast, another human trait he had probably forgotten was necessary. "From a stupid girl." Another lash of his barbed tongue and it dug deep. He dismissed her, physically turning from her to the view.

"Coming here?" Like an elastic band stretched too tight, Caroline's inner strength snapped. "I didn't come here to save you. I didn't even know about this until three minutes ago. I had my neck broken and was stowed in the back of a car. I get here and I'm told you fucked up with some witches and got this thrown back as punishment. And you know what, you deserve it." This time, these words caught his attention. He turned slowly back to her, his face the embodiment of hatred.

"I deserve this?" There was nothing pleasant about the way he repeated her words.

Her fingers ran through her hair before she recalled his declawed state. Now, for the first time, Klaus could be argued with without the very realistic possibility of death or torture facing her.

"I can't even start to name all the millions and billions of people whose lives you have single-handedly ruined. Don't get me wrong, you were an amazing vampire and a brilliant hybrid." she laughed without feeling. "You were the psychotic monster kids would have nightmares about. You would take what you wanted regardless of the consequences." His grip tightened on the ledge. "If you wanted people dead, you killed them. Leaving everyone they loved to pick up the pieces of your mess. So yes, you deserve this. You deserve to know that forcing people to your will has consequences. You deserve these consequences to happen to _you_ for once."

"I deserve people who don't need to be threatened to do a job!" he roared. His mind glued to the event triggering this new state of being.

"You deserve to be punished!" she hissed. "You deserve this through and through." She unclenched fists she didn't realise she had tightened just in time to react with vampire speed and pick the china vase from the air when Klaus' anger flew to the nearest object that would bow to it.

But the vampire speed that was so automatic had become a wound that dug deep into Klaus. Deeper than her words perhaps. Caroline had lost nothing, yet here he was with a pathetic life because some witch got lucky. "I walked in here and I wanted to help you. I wanted you to get back to your stupid hybrid Klausness." she admitted, setting the vase a little too forcefully back to the table. "But now, I hope you stay like this. I hope you learn your lesson."

"Please teacher, let me take notes from the great Caroline." But the sarcasm dripping from his tongue was not appreciated.

"Be as much of an asshole as you like because from now on, the deepest wounds you'll inflict will be with your words… and I no longer care enough to listen." This time she forced herself to a human speed, turning and walking away from him and out of his bedroom.

As soon as the door closed her ears picked up the smash of pottery, the almighty pounding of an exhilarated heart and a pained roar.

She should have taken that beautiful vase with her. It didn't merit such a ferocious end.

Caroline slid down the wall to the floor, her fingers in her hair, head in her hands and forcing calming breaths from her lungs.

"So glad I brought you here. You're going to be such a help." Rebekah appeared at vamp speed to her side with a double dose of sarcasm. Something met the wall with a thud behind them, it sounded heavy but solid, perhaps it would survive the temper of the toothless Original. "Please tell me you have a better plan than pissing him off, because you're not going anywhere until he's fixed." she warned, the whole conversation too quiet for Klaus' human ears to listen into.

"I've not helped." Caroline admitted. It wasn't because she didn't want to, it was because he wouldn't let her. "You heard him. He's too proud to let anyone help, not to mention to damn ego."

"And you're surprised?" she asked rhetorically, a hand on her hip. "This _is_ Nik."

It was Klaus.

What had she expected? A poor boy begging for someone to help him?

Klaus fought tooth and nail to get his way. It would take someone just as determined to make him realise he would have to play with a whole new set of rules. The game had changed.

Rebekah sighed in the silence and dropped to a crouch before the baby vamp.

"There's blood in the fridge. There's an abundance of rooms, take your pick, but you're not going back home."

"So I'm a prisoner?" Caroline summed, her energy drained from the fight.

"Think more like… a restricted guest." She smiled.

Perhaps Elijah had stepped out and their conversation was just for them, or perhaps Elijah knew of her softer side, but Rebekah suddenly dropped the hate and softened considerable, a hand outstretching to Caroline's knee.

"We're all worried." Caroline lifted her head, looking up into sad eyes. "I guess I'm sorry I had to drag you here, but honestly, I thought it would go better than that. Guess I should have known better."

"He's Klaus." Caroline repeated back to her, earning a light laugh.

"Yeah."

But their silence shared a worry neither of them could say; it wasn't _their_ Klaus. He may have the same temper, the same twist to his lips, but it wasn't the man they begrudgingly stood by through thick and thin. This Klaus was drowning and refusing to let anyone save him. It was breaking them apart to watch.


	3. Research

Thank you for all the lovely reviews, I'm glad you like my approach to characterising. I find Klaus quite nice to write; I open up my inner bitch and let narcissism take control, haha.

Please enjoy Chapter Three just as much :)

* * *

 **Chapter Three: Research**

By 5am, Caroline was sat downstairs with Elijah and Rebekah. The moonlight was showering in, battling against the overhead lights to illuminate the hundreds of books littering the floor.

"Another one down." Rebekah announced to the room, closing another of the codex's they had stored over the years. "It's dark magic, darker than this stuff."

"It's all Salem bloodline. It will have a basis somewhere in one of these." Mr Rational was far from the calming influence he intended to be for the original vampire sister.

"Great, so of the many many Salem families with their many many witchy cookbooks over many many years-"

"Rebekah." he chided softly.

"-and many many generations, we may be lucky enough to find a _basis_ for this black magic that was cooked up?!" her bitch face was back, stinging the room.

"Rebekah."

"We need a witch." she decided.

"With the current situation, would you honestly consider entrusting this to a witch?" It was no secret Klaus' death would be greatly praised by other supernaturals. The witches that had been manipulated by him for years would be the first to sing out in merriment. The ones who had valued him for any reason were usually the ones who followed him into danger and met the eternal sacrifice at his hands.

"Then we compel one."

"Rebekah, do not pretend there aren't ways around compulsion, especially for a witch. It's a reckless gamble with Niklaus' life to involve a witch. Any witch."

"So what, we dive through book after book?"

"Has he slept?" Caroline's soft voice interrupted the soon-to-be argument and the originals settled, filtering out the TV to listen to the heartbeat above them that was moving backwards and forwards in a line. Pacing. Again.

"Barely." Elijah replied, resting his newspaper down to his knee, his full attention upstairs.

"An hour the first night. Two or three the second." Rebekah narrated and moved herself to sit on the sofa, the opposite end to Caroline to watch the old comedy movie play on. That night was Klaus' fourth day as a human. "On and off last night." Following pattern, he wouldn't be sleeping much tonight either.

"Centuries have gone by and we've had no need for sleep. Yet now… it's essential to his survival." Elijah mused off-handedly.

"Has be eaten?" Caroline asked again, her fingernails seconds away from a good nervous chewing. Other than blood, Klaus had spent more of his life not eating than eating. Would he forget about all essential parts of humanity too?

"Occasionally." Elijah offered, tilting his head as he heard a change in footstep pattern upstairs. "Nothing I'd consider healthy." he added as Niklaus stopped, from an educated guess, Elijah would guess he was sat on the bed. "But there is very little now a days that compares to any diet Niklaus previously knew."

"Well, I'm hardly going to offer to go out and cook a rabbit for him but perhaps I can find something edible from the shops." Her eyes went cautiously to Rebekah as she stood. A blunt reminder of her prisoner status stopped her from leaving.

"He wasn't fond of rabbit anyway." Elijah spoke conversationally. "Deer. He liked deer."

"Chicken?" Caroline could only offer. She had zero experience of cooking venison, last thing she needed was to give Klaus food poisoning. He'd never forgive her. "I can make an amazing chicken soup. I used to make it for my mother when she was ill."

"Write a list. I'll shop." Rebekah stood, paper passed into Caroline's hands before she sped upstairs.

"She's serious about keeping me here…" Caroline summed quietly.

"A new face could lead to a lot of questions. Sadly, we are not a family that falls into the background. Klaus made sure of that. A woman such as yourself coming and going would stir gossip and attention that we could not afford to fuel in this present condition."

"And then there's the whole trust issue." Caroline offered, rolling her eyes. Did they really think she was going to scream Klaus' weakness from the rooftops? It was her life too.

"I wouldn't say that." Elijah corrected. "You're here, aren't you?" and with a smile he unfolded his newspaper, returning to his article.

* * *

With the daybreak falling into afternoon sun, Caroline had given up on the attempt at the latest of spellbooks and deferred her knowledge to the Original siblings as they passed page for page.

"This is hopeless." Caroline sighed. "I can't figure out two words, never mind a whole book." She closed the book and quit the translator app she had open on her phone.

"Do not give up hope Caroline." Elijah's voice was soft and serene, but it did little to quell the guilt. She was here to help Klaus break his fully deserved curse.

Since the initial rage, he'd passed her once or twice, mainly to swap books in the extensive pile, eyeroll and then return to his room. He hadn't said anything more to her.

He hadn't even commented that she'd finally changed out of her Minnie Mouse pyjamas like she'd expected. "Perhaps you may enjoy a walk around the gardens?" Caroline looked up to Elijah, finding his smile filling her with suspicion of an underlying motive.

But Caroline had seen the grounds in passing and was more than intrigued to look around.

"Alright, I will." She returned the smile, but was hesitant as she stepped out of the French doors.

The area was hugged with the aroma of various flowers, the spice of autumn colouring the leaves in the trees as the seasons dared to change. A cold breeze lifted across her skin, a scent of aftershave tickling her nose which didn't belong in the outdoors. She recognised it well though, she remembered laying her lips to a neck that bore that sandalwood tinge as she was pinned to a tree.

Klaus.

Her eyes spun back through the doors to where Elijah sat with an innocent smile.

Suspicions were confirmed; ulterior motives became clear.

This was attempt number two at a greeting.

She didn't really know what to say, but from where Klaus leaned on the stone fountain, a fleeced jacket wrapped around him, she didn't want to break his peace with her presence. Not when he looked so serene.

Maybe she could slip back inside.

"Grand standing, isn't it?" he spoke.

Klaus wasn't supernatural, but neither was he deaf, he had obviously heard her footsteps. He was still staring out of the grounds though, appearing significantly calmer than before.

Caroline took a breath and dared to advance.

"It's beautiful." she answered tentatively, not knowing which side of Klaus' emotions she was facing.

"It's home." he commented and finally turned to her. "Of sorts." She wasn't expecting the smile he gave her.

It inspired a honest reaction.

"It's striking; the brickwork, the ivy… it looks like something out of a dream."

Klaus smirked, pushing off from the stone and came to her side.

"I assure you love, you aren't dreaming."

His personality had taken a 180 degree flip. Perhaps she had struck a nerve, perhaps he had reflected on his words. Or perhaps, just like her usual Klaus; he had decided to skirt over all the bad he had done and continued with his single minded chase of whatever struck his fancy. Like the murder, mayhem and Machiavellian evil had never existed.

He stayed by her side but turned out to the flowers and plants, encouraging her to do the same.

There were shades of all colours, she doubted Klaus would have had a hand in this garden, it was far too bright for that. Caroline got the idea this was Rebekah's influence; something just echoed feminine care in the way it was arranged.

When Klaus failed to disclose his current chase or mindset, Caroline couldn't help but fill the silence with a pondered thought.

"I wonder what you would dream about now?" she mused aloud. "So many years of memories."

"If I could choose, I know which memory I would chose to relive." It was the purr in his tone, the salacious tone that had Caroline knowing exactly to what he referred.

"I'm serious." she laughed, lightly nudging him in chastisement; the obsession with her was obviously more important than remaining anger. At least she had that peace of mind.

"As am I." He turned to her. "Whether by choice or not, you are once again in my presence, Caroline. I cannot begin to list all of the things I wish to do with you." His smirk was teasing, playful and daring all at the same time.

"In your dreams, Klaus."

"One can only hope." He smiled. "I trust Mystic Falls will survive a few days without you?"

"Somehow, since you left, things aren't as murder-y." she spoke, heavy with sarcasm.

"You could just say you missed me. We're far past the need to cover your feelings with hostility. Or have you forgotten your confession?"

"You know what I'd do if I were human again?" she changed the topic, turning to face him.

"And here I thought you regretted nothing about vampirism."

"Oh, don't get me wrong, I am so much of a better person since this, but I mean, _ice-cream_." she dragged the word along her tongue with her head thrown back in the pleasure of the memory.

"Love, you can eat ice-cream now."

"But the taste, the way it melted in your mouth, the way I wouldn't still be hungry for blood when I ate it." she laughed lightly, her hair bouncing as she turned her head back to him. "Surely there's something you'd want to do while you're like this."

"There of plenty of things I wish to do. But none I wouldn't do better as my true self."

"There's not a food you want, you don't want to feel your heart jump watching a scary movie, or get an adrenaline rush?" she suggested.

"Trust me when I say this Caroline, the one thing I wish to do right now; is find my cure." he bit off angrily. "Perhaps then we'd talk about how I'd get you in my bed." he returned to his usual playful demeanour.

"Oh my god." she laughed out. "You really are putting me second to your cure. I can't believe this." She was gobsmacked with an edge of black humour. "I mean, yes, I was expecting to bat off your advances when I next saw you, but I didn't expect mortality to change that."

"Disappointed?"

"Surprised." she corrected.

"Do not doubt me, Caroline," He wrapped his arm around her waist, "Having tasted you, it has not dulled my desire to have you, but why would I ever give you anything less than 100% of my best." He grinned. "Unless," Even human he could still twist his way into her sex drive. "You feel compelled to convince me otherwise."

"You're insatiable." She broke his hold and turned back inside. "Besides," she paused and looked over her shoulder to him. "Your stamina was bad enough the first time around. I'd hate to see your _human_ abilities." she lied, knowing exactly where to poke the de-clawed bear. She left him chuckling to himself in the garden, feeling relieved that her time here was not going to be entirely at the mercy of his rage.

* * *

At 7pm, a peace settled over the original household. Caroline made a batch of chicken soup that kept mysteriously disappearing from the pot after the sound of a heartbeat in the kitchen. Her momma always said it was good for the heart and soul and after the heartbreak Klaus had suffered from losing his 'true self', he seemed all too willing to speed up his recovery.

"Finally." Rebekah sighed, sinking into her chair, the grimoire of the Sampson family limp in her lap.

Caroline looked up from her own task, an Irish witch's family's spellbook heavy in her arms. All ears went to the heartbeat above them, narrowing in to the slow soft breathing. A bedside clock ticked violently to Caroline's overly sensitive ears, but her eyes closed in bliss. Finally, she could breathe again.

It felt like a weight had lifted from the entire room, both Originals settling back into their seats, tension flying off them.

Klaus was finally giving in to sleep. Whether willingly or not.

In a blink, Rebekah had left the room, her footsteps just audible to vampire hearing as she slipped into her brother's room. She returned with two more books and an empty bowl.

"Asleep in his chair with the bowl in his lap." Rebekah narrated, shining a smile to Caroline. Caroline didn't even think Rebekah knew how to smile, let alone to her, but it seemed the sibling bond was enough to soothe even Rebekah's inner bitch. "It seems even Niklaus has a weakness for your chicken soup."

"Perhaps I should take this time to step into town." Elijah suggested, already slipping back on the suit jacket and buttoning as he stood. "I trust you two will be able to handle things here."

Rebekah didn't even need words, she just turned dark eyes to her brother, her feelings about the condescending tone made perfectly clear. "Then I'll take my leave." he summed, a nod to Caroline before he walked from the compound.

"With any luck he'll stay asleep for a while." Rebekah nodded to the ceiling. "Until then, light reading part two." She tossed one of the large bound books to Caroline.

She caught it at the end of its arc, completely distracted. Her attention was entirely focussed upstairs.

Rebekah sighed, but left the girl to her daydreams.


	4. Fight

For everyone who has review or favourited; thank you so much, I really really appreciate the support for this Fic.

I am loving writing Klaus so much, but you may wish to growl at me for his attitude this chapter. Not a spoiler! Simply saying.

* * *

 **Chapter Four: Fight**

Caroline awoke late in the day. Noon had been and gone, but so had multiple grimoires and translation guides during the early hours of the morning; she was exhausted. She peeled herself from the comfort of the borrowed bed and listened in to the commotion that stirred her. The original trio were arguing, again.

She sighed and stretched out her aching muscles.

The labour of last night had achieved only one tiny piece of information to aid them. A water damaged spellbook bound in animal skin had passages speaking of a 'last wish' spell. It spoke of a curse used by a vengeful witch that would take the witch's life but bind her enemy to a fate much worse. It was some seriously dark magic, there were even drops of blood on the pages telling of satanic sacrifices and offerings.

There was no talk of a cure in the pages, but Elijah reassured her it was not something witches of that calibre were likely to include anyway. The information gained gave them little hope, the 'last wish' bled over into so many different realms of magic it was impossible to locate an origin or backtrack to a cure.

Ultimately, they returned right back to square one's ideas, that the cure was in Klaus, he just needed to trigger it by fulfilling the wish and thus his humanity.

As a last crazy impulse before disappointment hit too hard, Caroline had started to google the principles of humanity, looking for the light switch to press in Klaus.

But between religious beliefs and unparalleled kindness, her energy exhausted before the search engine did.

A spike in the argument downstairs drew her attention back and she started downstairs, well aware she had fallen asleep in her clothes from yesterday. Whoever a man named Marcel was, he had the Mikaelsons at each other's throats.

Caroline followed the noise to the dining room where siblings were throwing words over glasses of blood and a spread of mouthwatering food. All of it untouched.

"Who's Marcel?" she asked at the first pause in the argument.

Three heads turned, two covered their surprise easily, the human one failed to be so speedy.

"Great, the baby vampire wants to play politics." Klaus slapped sarcasm over his sudden jolt. It seemed his bad moor had returned, probably from the awkward position he chose to sleep in, or perhaps the fact he had succumbed to sleep itself. Either way, it was looking like a grey mood day.

Caroline felt her heart drop in her chest, so much for yesterday. So much for his flirty playfulness.

It seemed Klaus was either angry at her or desperate to have her. Was there no inbetween?

He was giving her whiplash from his moods and it wasn't doing wonders for her ego either.

"Marcel is… complicated." Elijah began. "At present, he's a vampire ally." A scoff came across the table from Klaus. "But, it seems without Klaus' continued presence, there is talk over overthrowing the French quarter."

"Let him have it!" Rebekah hissed, not for the first time. "What does it matter? As soon as Klaus is back he can take back his precious land. I don't care about it, neither do you." She jabbed a finger toward Elijah. "It's _his_ petty fight." Klaus. "And _he_ will fight it when _he_ fixes himself."

"Need I remind you of the fight we had to retake that quarter upon our return?" Klaus snarled, his fists clenched. "Should I perhaps remind you of our long history in that quarter? Or perhaps you care more for keeping your precious boyfriend happy?"

"Marcel is no-"

"Regardless." Elijah spoke over the soon to be petty argument. "Until Niklaus has returned to full strength, there is little we can do. A negotiable truce is the best we can offer."

"The best we can offer?" Klaus repeated. "And when you roll over to Marcel, what will that say about my current predicament? We both know he expects my fight. If I don't provide, he will know something is wrong, and I was under the impression we were trying to keep my state as quiet as possible."

"Damn it Nik, what do you propose? We shove you in the firing line and let them all listen to your heartattack?"

"Please sister, there's a reason you don't plan any fights. Perhaps take advice from that long history." Klaus rolled his eyes and physically turned from his sister.

"Niklaus, any fight at current would risk exposure. I am not saying it is permanent, I am sayin-"

"It's _my_ town!" Klaus bit out, no hesitation of going head to head with his stronger brother.

"What if…" Caroline began softly, but eyes all went spinning back to her. A familiar heat of public speaking crept on her. "Perhaps this… Marcel would be willing to hold off a few days." Mouths opened to argue so she spoke faster. "Obviously there are relationships with him," her eyes flashed to Rebekah. "Perhaps a respectable friendship?" she tried again when she received a glare back. "And it may only be a few days before Klaus is back to himself anyway."

"We could play him for time." Elijah agreed. "However, he is acting commander of other vampires who could act without order."

"Unless we make it seem too risky." Rebekah suggested.

"It's a failure waiting to happen." Klaus supplied, bored with the line of thought. "Baby vampire here had no idea what she's doing." Caroline felt her heart crush under his words.

"Building an army perhaps." The Mikaelson daughter offered, ignoring Klaus entirely. "Expecting a rebellion."

"I will speak with him. I am almost sure we would be able to halt the plans. I was under the impression he was already holding reservations about the idea." Elijah agreed, already standing.

"Lovely." Klaus spoke to the air. "Well, when the french quarter is overrun with inexperienced little vampires playing kings and queens in my city, it will be the first place I tear apart after putting a dagger in both your hearts!" Klaus's tongue slashed away again. With a huff of disapproval, he turned and returned to the bedroom he had claimed, the door slamming loudly.

"Like living with a damn teenager." Rebekah muttered under her breath. It seemed Klaus had been amiss a good mood since he woke up.

"Should I…" Caroline pointed to the bedroom. Should she say something? Could she comfort him in any way?

"Unless you want to play dodge the stake, I think you're better down here for a while." Rebekah grinned. Klaus may be declawed but he wasn't harmless _._

"I'll return soon." Elijah promised and took off at vampire speed to meet once more with Marcel.

* * *

It was 20 minutes later, Rebekah was watching Caroline pull together a stew from the wasted meat Klaus hadn't touched at dinner, when all attention went to footsteps outside.

Caroline paused, knife in hand, water turned down to a simmer to stop more noise interference. Elijah was still out, but it certainly wasn't him returning in high heels on their driveway. It certainly wasn't him with a heartbeat.

Instantly, both the women tuned their ears to Klaus' heartbeat.

"Go to Klaus. I'll deal with this." Rebekah insisted and instantly Caroline sped out the kitchen, knife still in hand.

She stopped on the balcony outside his room, Rebekah nodded up at her, clocking her position.

"Louisa." Rebekah greeted happily to the female guest, the click of heels slowing to a stop just out of sight under the arch of the entryway. "What do we owe the pleasure?"

"Your brother. I need to see him." Her voice was firm, it gave Caroline the impression of narrow lips and crow's feet. "We need to talk."

"Elijah just stepped out." Rebekah answered, knowing full well that was not the brother in reference.

"The other brother." Came the sharp crisp words, but with light footfalls, the woman walked into sight. Thin lips were pouted and painted red. The woman looked barely 30, as pretty as a model with long ginger hair and sparkling green eyes. Caroline felt instant loathing of the women. No one should be that pretty.

Jealousy struck her like lightning. How did Louisa know Klaus?

"I have an abundance of siblings, you'll have to be more specific." Rebekah taunted all too happily. Perhaps Rebekah joined Caroline in her feelings. They seemed far from friendly.

"KLAUS!" the guest shouted, stepping further into the compound. "KLAUS!" the woman spotted Caroline on the balcony. "Who's she?" Disgust was evident in her tone.

"A play toy." Rebekah supplied easily, not a skip in her smooth words. "You know how boys get."

Caroline had too much tension to even feel a bubble of anger, she knew it wasn't maliciously intended. On the contrary, it was for survival and evidently, this woman didn't come for tea and biscuits.

"And which _boy_ would she be for?" But her eyes skipped over Caroline dismissingly and the woman turned back to the sister. "I need to see Klaus."

"He's not here I'm afraid, but I can tell him you dropped by." A kind offer from Rebekah. One that tasted sickly sweet.

"I know he's here, and I need to see hi-"

"So see me." The women all turned to the balcony. Caroline cursed under her breath as Klaus stepped out from the doors behind her and to the edge of the balcony, hands placed lazily on the banister.

"So you _are_ still alive." The woman laughed bitterly. "I was told differently."

"Bad information, I'm afraid." Klaus answered, staying where he was, he looked disinterested through and through. "I'm perfectly healthy, perhaps even sporting a glow of happiness today. Nothing compared to you though, have you been using those spells of yours for that suntan?" he teased, crossing his arms and leaning forward onto them.

Witch, Caroline instantly labelled. Her eyes training to the ruby lips she hated, a whisper of latin and she'd be tearing limb from limb.

"Because something such a trifle should be abused by magics." she hissed sarcastically. But her posture changed from defensive in a blink. "I heard something actually. About the Black Stone of Salem." A cold grip tugged on the Mikaelson bones. "Something about you being interested in knowing about it."

"Ah, well, after a lot of wasted time and money on research I find it's nothing more than a fable, so whatever story you are selling, you will find me without care for it." He turned to return to his room.

"I see." The lady cackled out a laugh, something far too pretty to belong to a witch. "So it's true. Klaus Mikaelson is cursed." He halted and turned back, carelessly positioning himself infront of Caroline. Never to look weak. Not even in his most defenceless state.

"Cursed with good looks, twisted humour and a weakness for beautiful blondes, yes." His eyes, even in the danger, cut to Caroline and softened for a second. He quickly covered it with hostility. "It's true." But the humour did nothing to cover the truth from her.

"Klaus Mikaelson tore through a Salem ancestor." she narrated.

"Most probably, there have been a lot of dead witches in my life." He played the role of the hybrid king so well you wouldn't know from his posture or tone that anything had changed.

"You'd remember this one." Caroline and Rebekah suddenly heard numerous other footsteps, all flooding through from the woods and heading to them with speed. Klaus, of course, didn't know, he couldn't react. "She died cursing you. She passed a message to come for your blood. Your _human_ blood."

The secret had been spilled. There was no chance to cover this with lies and boisterous acts.

Rebekah moved instantly, reaching to snap her neck clean and clear. Crippling pain met her before she could.

Caroline met the same fate, the witch didn't say a word, just rose her hands and scrunched them tight. Both vampires were pinned by the ghostly illusion of pain.

Even knowing the pain wasn't real it didn't aid anything. Caroline had been tortured, bitten, cut, thrown and used in fights between supernatural creatures, but nothing compared to the pain a witch could summon. It dropped you like a stone, curling defensively to cradle and comfort the body you had. Her head felt like it would explode with pressure, her legs wobbled unable to hold her, her arms felt like insects were crawling out of them, tearing the flesh constantly. It was agony. And nobody could do agony like the witches.

And then it was gone.

The hell she was living in fell from her. Like a wet blanket over a roaring fire, the pain was gone.

She opened her eyes to find Klaus smugly staring over the balcony.

She pushed herself from the floor to find the knife that had been in her hand was now lodged in the witch's chest.

Perhaps the witch was too distracted, too confident or too used to easy human prey, but she had overlooked Klaus and his aim had been true to take advantage of that fact. After all, declawed did **not** mean powerless. Whilst the witch may have forgotten that, she didn't forget back-up, and they were drawing ever closer.

"Well, now that's dealt with." Klaus spoke to the rising females. "Be a darling and take her body to the bayou would you?"

"Klaus." The pure fear in Caroline's eyes paused him for a second but he brushed it off.

"Could you two be any more useless?" he scoffed and turned back to his room once more, closing the door.

"Smells like wolves." Rebekah suddenly spoke, picking up on sensory information more accurately now. "Six, seven possibly." She sped to the dead body, tossing the knife back up to Caroline. "Stay with him."

"You can't take on six by yourself." Caroline hissed. It wasn't a full moon, but it didn't make them any less deadly.

"We're not leaving him alone." she replied quickly sinking back into a hunting crouch.

Caroline pushed into Klaus' room, instantly slamming the door closed and dragging a dresser before it.

"Oh good, round two of the littlest vampire who couldn't." he sneered. "What use would that possibly be against anyone? At least try to fight like a vampire. Some of us cannot." Klaus pulled a shotgun from a wardrobe and deftly loaded it.

Anger bubbled in her veins, but she hadn't expected so much of it to be directed at the man she was saving.

"I don't know what crawled up your ass, but just shut up, alright?" she hissed. "Your sister is out there risking her life for you and you couldn't care less."

"My sister failed to take care of one lone witch, she is hardly laying much of a life down."

"The witch was right; you are void of humanity." Caroline swore, unable to be more disgusted with him than right then.

"Love, if I remember it rightly, you were the one to fall in love with me as a hybrid, when I was further from humanity than I am now." Klaus always went for the jugular with his words. He wasn't happy unless he'd hurt you, stunned you or shocked you.

This time, he did all three.

"I was not… this is not the time." she snapped. But her second wind of the argument was cut off by footfalls coming ever closer, and they weren't approaching from outside the barricaded door.

She sped to the balcony. The back-up for the back-up were already thundering down the wrap around balcony of the upper story and heading straight for them, yellow eyes like headlights pointed directly to Klaus.

Caroline launched the knife at the leader of the pack, speeding to rip it from his falling body and slice the throat of the next in line.

Hands and teeth came at her, her body colliding with the pack the more she fought.

Her fists broke bones, the sound and sensation disturbing her sanity. There was no part of her that enjoyed this. Broken and wounded, the men kept fighting.

Hands tugged her hair, drawing her back sharply and shooting pain into her. It was at that moment, a gun shot burst through the air, the bullet smashing into the head of the assailant that had been directly infront of her.

Her eyes didn't have a chance to turn deadly to Klaus and his risky aim. There was already a wolf that had slipped past her and thundering to her human tormentor.

She jabbed an elbow back into the body that held her, sacrificing a few strands of hair to rush the animal. She grabbed around an arm to pull him from his course, to drag him into her and rip arteries from his neck. She didn't manage more than a touch.

A shotgun blast threw both Caroline and the man back, skidding across the floor and releasing the horde of wolves the narrow balcony had been holding behind the fight.

To make matters worse, the roars of the free intruders brought forth their packmates slamming through the main barricade in the room. All hell was unleashed, funnelling from two directions with murderous intent and a venomous bite.

Klaus was backed into the corner of the balcony, a sick smile on his face, halfway between enjoyment and fear. Caroline tried to keep her cool head, but the crashing panic was overheating her.

All she could think was that she had to protect Klaus. He was the most vulnerable and the clearest target. As long as he lived, she had succeeded. It wasn't anything noble or self sacrificing, simply that they wanted Klaus dead and despite his current disposition, she wasn't okay with letting them win.

With that in mind, she took position infront of Klaus, ensuring one part of her body kept between the wolves reach and Klaus' human vulnerabilities.

More than once she ended up on the floor, stretching out a limb to hurl back a man twice her size or break the legs within her reach.

Caroline had seen plenty of fights, but nothing of this outnumbered size. In the movies the good guy always made it look so fluid and effortless when fighting. Caroline felt nothing like that. It was a constant struggle just to keep a barrier between the bad guys and their soon-to-be victim.

Her vision became a barrage of limbs, some she just had to push away, others she ripped from sockets, throwing from the balcony.

Make-shift stakes came from the splintered door, rushing to her chest.

She ducked left, then back right, pulling a man into the path of the next stake and letting him take the killing blow in exchange. Caroline took the opportunity to reach through the chest of her human shield and into the one of the assailant. Klaus always made it seem so easy to pull a heart from a chest, but the truth was; it wasn't easy. Ignoring all psychological struggle, the pressure needed to break the rib cage and tear the arteries and veins connecting it wasn't the job of an in and out touch, it was a grab, a twist, a tug, a snag and then feeling the last sole beat of a heart in your palm as it squirted blood.

Any other instance, Caroline might have recoiled from the blood up her arm, now, with dark veins spiralling out from her eyes and fangs ready to kill, she just dropped the object and pounced on the next assailant, teeth to neck.

Teeth came back to her from the human wolves, desperate to kill, to wound, to succeed. Caroline was back on top through, numbers were dropping and the situation was more manageable. Klaus would occasionally call in victory as a gunshot took a target or some other weapon he had drawn stole a life. Together they dropped the numbers faster than Caroline expected.

Bright yellow eyes of three finally stood opposing the two bloodied defenders.

Caroline took a heartbeat to turn and look at Klaus.

He was grinning ear to ear, war taunts slipping out distracting and disgruntling the wolves.

They snarled in return, snapping human teeth and spittle.

These had fought through the injuries they sustained, standing with inhumane strength and determination to finish their work.

It stank of witch interference. Wolves ran in tight packs. No wolf would continue a losing fight after losing so many pack mates. This was magic.

One was bleeding from a bullet to his chest. Even as a wolf, the lung the wound had exposed should be making movement agony for him, yet still, he advanced.

Another was limping, bone pushing out from his kneecap, still, he crept forward.

Lastly, their middle man, he stood covered in the blood of his pack, battered in wounds, cut from the wooden door he had clearly forced himself through.

Together they advanced.

Caroline sunk closer to the ground, lowering her centre of gravity and rooting her feet. Three brutes rushing her would not be pleasant.

Another taunt slipped from Klaus and the wolves barricade broke, all three set towards them at full speed.

A gunshot set the strongest back a few paces, the other two met Caroline head first in a mess of limbs. A twisted neck severed the spinal cord of one, instantly disabling his fight and ending his life.

The second tried to use that time to rip out Caroline's carotid artery with his teeth, he managed to catch the collar of her jacket but the force sent her slamming back into the brickwork.

She fought for power, desperately trying to avoid the teeth coming at her. Out of the corner of her eye she saw the brute who had taken the shotgun shell charge towards Klaus.

Caroline stretched out a hand to grab him and pull him off course, but the blood coating her hands and the blood of his own wounds met to slip him through without any chance of grip. He slid past easily, seconds from Klaus.

Caroline felt true panic rush through her, it was enough for her to find the strength to launch the man from her, over the balcony edge and to meet the ground with a bone breaking, life-ending slam.

She barrelled to the wolf, but in a blink of an eye, his body dropped away from his head, crashing to the ground.

Caroline followed the head from the bloodied hands that held it all the way back to the blonde hair of the Original Vampiress.

"Slippery bastard." Rebekah whispered to herself, obviously having had trouble with the same man downstairs. There was a bloodied gap in her clothing that said they'd tried to stake her.

In a bated breath, it was all over.

Rebekah dropped the head and surveyed the scene.

Caroline did the same.

Caroline had never experienced a warzone. She'd seen massacres and death in abundance, but nothing quite like this.

Bodies were littered all around, hung over the railings, torn in half on the tiles, impailed at odd angles.

She swallowed tightly, suddenly ashamed. She had caused this.

It had been life or death, but this death was all at _her_ hand in the name of defence.

She knew she shouldn't feel like this, but she did, and that wasn't changing.

"They came from both sides." Rebekah needlessly stated, her eyes roaming the same sights. Carpets that had been taken from aristocrats' mansions centuries ago were soaked through with wolf blood, stinking out the room.

Klaus lowered the gun, a hand to the scratch on his arm, then eyes to the offending broken vase that had cut him.

Rebekah sighed. In a fight of over 15 wolves, his only injury was from a vase.

"As with any good assault." Nik offered in narration to finish Rebekah statement. "Yet look, I still stand. Alive and kicking. Your protection was barely necessary."

"Barely necessary?!" Caroline hissed, the fight far from over for her. Why was he being such a dick to her? Sure, there was the whole ego hit from losing his power, but she'd saved his life several times that day. "You'd be dead if not for me."

"Someone thinks highly of themselves today." he commented sickly. "Now, be of use and drag out these bodies before they start to smell." He disappeared back out of the room and into another clean one.

"Are you okay?" Caroline asked on a sigh, noting the blood up and down Rebekah.

"Seriously considering fratricide." she muttered, eyes closed to quell the rage. "But otherwise, perfectly whole."

"You took on seven alone?" Had downstairs been as much of a fight?

"They were new wolves; no pack behaviour. No idea which kin they were, but they weren't from around here."

"You think they were sent here by a witch?"

"We've got a much bigger problem than witches commanding werewolves. If the message has been passed through witches now, there will be thousands of people coming here for him."

"Then we need to go elsewhere. Somewhere remote."

"I think I know somewhere. I'll let Elijah know the situation." Rebekah pulled out her phone and stepped from the hell ground.


	5. Try

Thank you guests and named reviewers - I love your comments :)

One of my biggest motivators for writing any fic is to enact what i'd long to do myself. Sadly, until the supernatural exist in my world, I must satisfy my need for adventure in stories and TV. These scenes of Caroline and Klaus really made me feel happy to write and I hope this chapter can bring the same for you. Also, god damn it man, Klaus is a loveable asshole.

* * *

 **Chapter Five: Try**

"I don't understand." Elijah admitted. They were all (bar Klaus) sat in the living room. "There is no talk of Niklaus, or a curse, amongst the witches."

"Impossible." Rebekah argued, unable to accept his words.

"I assure you sister, I am telling the truth. There is no word, not even rumour, of any change to Niklaus. The usual disapproval of his governing strategy, but nothing to raise concerns."

"Then what, the witch was lying?" Caroline guessed. "Louisa said the message was passed to her."

"Half of New Orleans witches have ancestors in Salem." Rebekah snapped the reminder. "Half of New Orleans are coming here." she stated stubbornly. Danger was coming, they needed to leave or arm themselves to the teeth.

"I disagree." Elijah spoke soft but firm. "The quarters appear as normal. Not even the witches could hide knowledge like that."

"Then what, Louisa just wants to scare us?"

"If the witches saw Klaus flee the city, it would definitely start investigation from them." Elijah agreed, but stood "I, however, have a different suggestion."

Caroline watched as Rebekah rolled her eyes but lounged back. "Louisa is the last of her name, she has been exploring dark blood magics to attempt to bring back her family. Perhaps it is those magics that have informed her. Perhaps, it was only her listening to the message at the time."

"So, you're saying we don't have a witch-apolocalypse descending on us?"

"Perhaps, from the nature of the curse cast, its lineage lies in dark arts banished from present witch grimoires."

"That explains why it's so hard to find." Caroline offered.

"Explains why we aren't run down by witches too, not too many are willing to sell their soul for a bit more juju power."

"But there will be some." Elijah reinforced. "We cannot let down out guard."

"So we continue as we are?" Rebekah summarised.

"We proceed as we have been; working to undo the curse." Elijah confirmed. Elijah's fingers slipped the buttons of his suit jacket back to closing. "I promised I would meet with the council in an hour." He stretched out his wrist from his cuffs and turned up the functional, but decorative watch. "That should be enough time to meet with Marcel again."

"So I'm babysitter again." Rebekah summed with a pout.

"I will be back soon. Then you are free to do as you wish sister." He passed his sister a soft smile, then paired it with a nod to Caroline before walking from the room.

Elijah had returned to the bloodbath and immediately considered image. As far as Elijah was concerned, if the compound looked perfect, nobody would possibly see the flaw in Klaus. But that was a philosophy Elijah lived by, or at least so Rebekah said. Caroline didn't understand the full depth of the words from the vampire sister, but when the bodies had been cleared and blood washed away, the first thing Elijah did was change into a clean suit before asking what had happened. Appearance.

"Great." Rebekah sarcastically droned. "Just great." She picked herself up only to flop back on the full length of the sofa Elijah had previously been sat on. "I spend the day putting down dogs and the night babysitting."

Caroline shuffled nervously, not quite knowing how to soothe the original vampire. But Rebekah's eyes were suddenly on Caroline. "Fantastic." Rebekah's smile crept over her face. "Alright, I have things to do. I'll be back before Elijah so do-"

"You're leaving. But what about Klaus?"

"You're here." Was her simple answer. "You'll take care of him." She shrugged. "You have my number if its life or death."

And like that, Caroline was alone in the Mikaelson manor with a human heartbeat echoing in her head.

After all that had happened today, how could Rebekah justify leaving Klaus? What if the wolves came back? What if there was another witch?

She couldn't let Klaus out of her sight really.

Anything could happen.

And if it did… on her watch… well, she wouldn't be alive for much longer. The Mikaelsons may not show it well, but family was exceedingly important to them. Even through all the betrayal and centuries of violence, they always stood together.

Caroline sped up the stairs to outside Klaus' room, perhaps he'd be in a better mood, maybe murder picked up his spirits as well as it did in Hybrid form. Perhaps he'd have found a solution to regaining his supernatural abilities.

She listened in at the door, not hearing any motions of pages or paintbrushes. Just a relaxed heartbeat.

Was he sleeping?

Caroline nudged open the door, expecting to find him on the bed.

When the bed proved empty, she stepped inside the room entirely, confusion furrowing her brow.

"Klaus?" she called, not finding him in the open French windows with the blank canvas and easel.

"In here, love." he replied, a smile evident in his voice. At least his mood had lifted since earlier. Then again, Klaus adored killing. It didn't matter which weapon, it was stress relief for him. And turning human was a hell of a stressor for a man like Klaus.

Caroline followed the sound. She was expecting a sitting room from the décor she had seen through the open doorway, but when she stepped through into a bathroom and to find Klaus in the bath she turned 180 on the spot, staring at the wall.

"Oh my god, sorry," she immediately apologised, blushing all the way up to her ears. "I didn't hear the water."

"No need to apologise love, you're more than welcome." Yep, Klaus was _definitely_ in a better mood than that morning.

"I should come back." she decided, but her feet didn't even manage a step before he spoke again.

"Why? Stay, discuss, chat. Whatever it is that you _need_ me for." The words danced over his tongue like the seduction he had tried so often before. "I promise you, I have nothing to be embarrassed about." And he knew it.

"Still..." She was trying to fight down the blush and failing.

"As you well know." he continued. She could picture the smirk on his lips.

"Klaus." she started, her fingers curling into fists then slowly releasing. "After your attitude, I am absolutely not talking about that with you."

"About what, love?" He would have sounded innocent to anyone else listening, but Caroline knew better.

"About... the woods."

"Oh, you mean where the trees are?" he spoke, purposefully dumb.

"Damn it Klaus, you know perfectly well what I mean."

"I'm afraid I don't sweetheart. You'll have to enlighten me. Perhaps a visual demonstration?" he couldn't hold back the chuckle as her hands made tiny fists again. There was no place he liked better than under her skin.

"We're dropping the subject."

"Absolutely." he submitted. "So, what was so important you had to burst into my room, if it wasn't to watch me bathe?"

She took a second to breathe out her stress.

"I just wanted to see how you are… and if you'd made any progress with the whole humanity thing."

"I see." Caroline heard the water rush as he stood in the bath. Two separate footsteps signalled he had stepped out of the bath. "No need to hide your blush, love." he spoke, walking past her stark naked to his bedroom, a perfectly useable towel in his hands.

Caroline spun again, this time staring at the bath he had vacated.

"It's not a blush… and… don't you have _any_ dignity to save?!"

"Unnecessary." he shrugged it off.

She risked a glance back but the rustle of fabric had been him tossing the towel to the bed. Two perfectly firm and rounded buttcheeks were all her eyes could find. She quickly shot her eyes back, closing them as an added measure. But the visual was there, and it was a good visual.

It was a visual that was pairing with the memory of her hands groping his ass through his denim jeans. Their 'time' in the woods had been a rushed affair, they were both too eager to both with full nudity or exploring bodies. Well, she had. Klaus had insisted upon learning every centimetre of her. She had been too wrapped up with her judgemental demons fighting her desires she couldn't find the strength to do much more than take what she wanted as pure as she could get it, as fast as she could get it.

"Regardless." she began again, her eyes still firmly closed. "Put on clothes, we should talk."

"So talk." he offered smugly. "Clothes don't affect my ability to communicate."

"They affect mine!" she snapped. Eyes open and staring at the golden taps so intently they could explode with pressure at any second.

"You mean you are affected by my body to such a state of silence? I'll take it as a compliment." he smirked.

"Stop twisting my words!" she complained, only just catching herself before she would have stomped her foot.

"They need no twisting, I assure you." he laughed. "However, if you insist it is that much of a distraction to you, I will cover myself."

Caroline gave him three full seconds after the rustle of fabric before she slowly turned around.

He was sitting on the bed, just the towel covering his groin. But he looked as relaxed as he could possibly be. He still had his 'I win' face on, but it was calm. "So, what would you like to talk about? As you can see, I am still human and still alive."

"You're still naked." she pointed out, this time braving up to at least face him.

"But for a towel." he clarified. "Try to contain your disappointment." He smirked again.

"Damn it Klaus." Still, she stepped further into the room, she wasn't going to waste her fight on getting him to put on more clothes, she was likely to lose anyway. "This morning… the wolves."

"I'd hardly call them wolves. Pups perhaps." he suggested with a tilt of his head, all the time trying to figure her out. "Inexperienced little pups with no hint of talent."

"Well… chances are they were controlled by a witch."

"Of course." he blatantly agreed, no hint of question or surprise. Sometimes she forgot who she was talking to. She had been sat in a strategy meeting with Rebekah and Elijah while Klaus pouted upstairs, but really, Klaus was the best strategist there was.

"Louisa said she found out by a message passed to her, but… none of the other witches in New Orleans seem to know."

"And your question is what exactly?" he narrowed his eyes and leant back onto his arms.

"Just… wondered what your opinion was."

"Oh, I see." But the words had lost all of their earlier tease and jest. These were loathing and dark. "You've finished your little powwow with my siblings only to realise you need me for your answers."

"No, we were jus-"

"Let me save you the trouble of finding your lies. You were planning on discussing my life behind my back, you found a plan, only it had a massive theoretical flaw in it and now you're here to appease me and beg for answers."

"No, Klaus, I-"

"Let me save you the trouble." he offered, sitting back up, the muscles in his face twitching with held-back anger. "There won't be an uprising of witches. Not in New Orleans."

"How can you be so flippan-"

"You can leave now you have your answers." he spoke without any emotion. But the statement was far from a suggestion, it was a thinly veiled threat.

"You know what, no." she stood her ground, feet firmly planted. "You're worse than a teenager with your mood swing; if you're not trying to seduce me, you're making me feel worthless and I've had enough. You need to pick a mood and stick with it."

"Pick a mood?" he repeated darkly. "Well since you've made it very clear you have no interest in me except to play savior, I-"

"I didn't say I have no inter-"

"And you seem to fit the worthless criteria all too well, perhaps I know which way to swing. But let's not forget all of those other pesky human emotions that are smashing around in my brain!" He stood, the towel dropped but as he crossed the room to stand infront of her, her own field of view cut out the obvious distraction. "I thought _you_ might have some respect for the impact of humanity on me, Caroline." He grit his teeth as he spoke. "Or don't you recall how hard it was to think clearly as a human? How many memories and feelings collide with what you think you know?!" he shouted. It was true, before, she would fall apart with stress of the next cheerleader practice if Marie had twisted her ankle. After, she could clearly see a solution in the filtration system of her brain. Without that, surely Klaus was chasing down a million emotions to follow one train of thought.

Caroline wanted to argue, she wanted to fight back, but she understood this mood swing all too well. More than his siblings ever could.

She could hear his heart pounding heavily in his chest, she could feel his breath rushing in and out as he geared up his temper.

"Sorry." she whispered and flashed out of the room.

* * *

15 minutes later, guilt-ridden for her snappy judgement, Caroline was organising spellbooks into piles, her Miss Mystic Falls abilities coming back in full swing to take charge of the mess of a living room. She paused only when the heartbeat, along with footsteps started coming closer, out of the bedroom and down the stairs.

Klaus's eyes pinned her where she sat, a book bound in animal skin pinched at the end of her fingers. He rose an eyebrow but said nothing.

It wasn't until he stepped out into the garden and headed for the trees that Caroline sped to walk behind him.

"Where are you going?"

"Out." he answered tersely.

"Where?" Panic was flaring again, she wasn't meant to leave the compound, and neither was Klaus.

"Out." he repeated, the anger returning.

She ran infront of him physically stopping him.

"You can't leave here." She didn't want to say it; she didn't want to be secluded in there either. But the security risks were exponential. Klaus could not leave.

Klaus stopped suddenly, his eyes dark and narrowed on her. He rolled a shoulder in a gesture that could only be predatory and stepped to the side of her to carry on walking.

Again, she blocked his path, an apologetic expression on her face.

"Where are my other captors then?" he questioned when his behaviour didn't warrant a cage of Elijah and Rebekah.

"They're… busy." she ambiguously answered.

"Oh, I see." But this time, he grinned. "They left me alone with the baby vampire." He stepped out again.

Once more, she physically blocked him. "Caroline, move."

"No. It's not safe out there." she protested. "What if someone recognises you? What if you… I don't know, what if you step in a bear trap? What if you fall down a hill and get knocked unconscious and drown in a river." His expression said it all. Did she really think him that feeble and incompetent that he would be beaten by a hill.

"Move." he repeated.

"Klaus…"

"I refuse to be trapped here like a disobedient child." he spat, darting to her other side and managing two steps before she blocked him again.

"You're risking death." she reminded him, but it was redundant.

"It's a minimal risk. It's the back woods, which, I happen to know better than you know your own house. You are more than welcome to stay here and play out my sisters fantasy of the good little housewife."

"Klaus, we're not leaving this house."

"I am."

"I can stop you." Yes. She was physically stronger, physically faster, physically superior in every way.

"You can try. But we both know that would mean touching me and you seem to have a sudden aversion to such behaviour." She knew his tactic before it began, distract her with his dirty talk until she either stormed off or forgot about her objective. "Not that you had this previously. I seem to recall a certain time you couldn't keep your hands off me."

"I knew you'd bring this up again."

"Bring what up?" This time, instead of dodging her, he came closer, to stand before her. "The way you insisted I fuck you against the tree, despite the mess it made of your back?"

"Klaus." But her insides were quivering, hoping he would inch closer, hoping he would find another tree to grind against her on.

"Or the way you begged me to keep playing with your clit?" he continued to tease. He had yet to touch her, and from his motions she could only guess he planned to do everything but.

"Klaus, stop it." she whispered

"Perhaps the way you sunk your teeth into my neck, hoping I wouldn't hear you call out my name as you came?"

"Why can't you just behave?!" she huffed, taking a step back and running her fingers through her hair.

He grinned. Whether that had been a part of his plan was unclear, but he seemed pleased either way.

"You don't love me because I'll bend to your will."

"I don't lo-"

"Besides, we both know I'm much better on top." He strode closer, instinctively forcing her to take another step back.

"Damn it Klaus. This is not a game. I know you don't like being told what to do. But right now, you need to."

"Or what? You'll report me to my big brother?" he sneered.

"You know what, you don't get the choice anymore. I'm stronger than you and faster than you, not to mention more pissed off than you. So no, you are _not_ leaving this house." His tormenting had drawn her to the end of her rope. "You're either going to walk back to your room, or I will drag you there!" Her fingers jabbed out at his chest, pressing against the worn leather jacket he favoured.

"Is that a challenge?" Darkly, he was amused. For so long his inner demons had craved the chase, it was almost too sweet a temptation to pass up someone like Caroline trying to issue an ultimatum. Niklaus pushed boundaries, he tested limits and he broke them entirely. There was nothing Niklaus could not do, and this little temptress before him was not going to change that. Human or not, he still had his reputation.

Niklaus Mikaelson did not bow before anyone, especially not the hot blonde that craved him so deeply she had to deny it.

"No." Caroline snapped, her anger rising. "That's a choice. One is going to happen, but I'm giving you first choice." She didn't want to physically remove him, it wasn't something Klaus would take well, and it wasn't something she wanted to do to him.

"Not much of a choice, love. Besides," he stepped again, a breath from her. This time, she demanded herself to remain where she was. "Something in those baby blues says it's all a bluff."

"You think I won't do it?"

He stepped to the side of her, then a sole step further to the trees.

"I know you won't, love."

"Klaus, don't try me. I _will_ drag you back." she threatened.

"No, you won't." He turned from her walking calmly to the trees. Caroline didn't have it in her to cross him. She knew better.

The closer he got to the trees, the more confident he grew. "You're welcome to come with me." he called over his shoulder. She was still standing where he last saw her, a million things racing through her mind. She'd been bested. It happened to everyone. Everyone but him. "Perhaps you'll find a bunny or two." he joked, walking on.

He could smell the woods even with his human nose.

There was something so calming about the scent of the forest.

His vampire ears would have heard the footfalls of the animals and calls of the birds from out here, but now, he was looking forward to seeking them out, to exploring a world he had taken advantage of.

His fingers reached out to the first tree, the bark seeming to call to him, asking him to feel it with dulled human senses.

In a heartbeat, everything changed.

Air slammed into him from all directions and his eyes closed instinctively.

When they opened, they saw his bedroom furniture, a blonde vampire standing opposite him looking rightfully guilty.

"Leave." he snapped.

She obeyed at vampire speed, returning to play guard by ear. She wondered if he would try again, but the lashing of rage at the bedroom furniture spoke otherwise.


	6. Bite

So, you may remember me saying something along the lines of 'I'll post monthly'. As it turns out, i'm not very good at that for several reasons.

1) I am addicted to your reviews and I want to feel that warmth I get when I read how much you guy like them, so I want to post more.

2) I have a terrible, irrational phobia something tragic will happen to me and the rest of my chapters will never see light of day and i'll end up with thoughts of hate to my grave/hospital bed. (Like I said, totally irrational).

3) I kinda wanna read my story again and if its so much easier if its all online on FF. Oh, gosh, I sound so self absorbed. Ho hum. What, I like my own writing! It's not weird.

Anyhoo, as such, please enjoy the latest chapter, and please don't kill me when you get to the end.

:O

* * *

 **Chapter Six: Bite**

The light seeped quickly from the sky, the winter's approach drawing darkness sooner.

Klaus had been caged in his bedroom for the last half hour, Caroline's nerves had demanded she do something productive and thus, she was in the kitchen trying to cook an apology for Klaus. He was battling human emotions, with limited human brain power and being moved like a rag-doll by a blonde half his size, it probably wasn't doing anything for his ego.

And, she wasn't exactly _unaffected_ by him.

However much he liked to tell her she felt nothing for him, it wasn't true.

She had been fighting the temptation to come to New Orleans only weeks ago, everything had hit a lull for her in Mystic Falls, adventure called her and as others spoke of romantic trips to the cinema or beach, Caroline had a voice inside her head planning a guilty-pleasure romantic weekend in Paris, courtesy of tour-guide Klaus. A weekend she could be as her darker side wanted her to, she could spend the days in the streets, drinking in the art and culture with him, sampling the local cuisine (human and food) with him, and spending the nights… _with_ him.

It was a fight to remind herself to focus on her studies, but the lore of romantic passion blazed bright in her mind, it was only a call away.

Caroline sighed as she brushed her hands on her jeans.

But right now, she was the last person Klaus would want to spend time with. She had brutally damaged his ego.

And, as much as he deserved the pain, she was desperate enough to want to be back on his golden pedestal. Worse, she was willing enough to sink herself to seductive levels to get there.

Things didn't feel right unless she was dancing with desire with him.

So, she was cooking for him.

Steak was a manly food.

Chances are he would like steak. She could make an amazing steak.

What better after a crappy human day? Steak and a cold beer.

And Rebekah had bought ahead in planning, so there was plenty of food she could pair it with.

Keeping one ear on upstairs, Caroline started her work on the dish.

Rebekah had dropped in, just to check everyone was alive. Then, guilty conscience soothed, she was gone again before a word was spoken.

Caroline wasn't above noticing the manicure that was now adorning the original sister's fingers. With the way Rebekah was fussing with her hair in the mirror, Caroline had bets on where Rebekah's next _vital_ appointment was.

Caroline stared down at her own fingernails.

She hadn't done much with them since she turned. Before, she used to paint them every other day, swirling patterns and adorning with all sorts of embellishments. Now, as a vampire she kept them shorter than usual, not bothering with nail polish. It didn't really seem worth it.

At current, she had a splodge of tomato sauce on her finger.

She sighed and turned back to the sink, running the water.

A sudden pulse of music broke from upstairs and Caroline jumped at the intrusion.

Apparently Klaus' angsty painting needed some musical inspiration and he was cranking the volume up loud. Who knew human Klaus would be stuck in the teenage phase? She rolled her eyes at the behaviour and turned back to her musings.

Perhaps she should try something new with her hair as well.

She'd had the same length since she became a vampire.

As a human, changing her hair had been vital, it mattered because there were a thousand styles and only a few amazing years for her to showcase them all. Now, she had all the time in the world to cycle through hairstyles and find the one she loved above all.

At current, it was up in a messy bun, keeping out of her eyes.

When had she become more practical than concerned about appearance?

The old Caroline was nothing like that.

But it didn't bother Klaus.

Klaus found her attractive covered in mud and wearing a burlap sack.

Not that the sack would be on for long.

She smiled at her reflection.

Having a few thousand years ahead of you messed with a girls' priorities.

Perhaps she should indulge herself though. After all, vampirism wasn't an excuse to let herself go. She grinned and turned off the tap, drying her hands. When Rebekah came back, she was insisting upon some time in New Orleans. She deserved a pampering.

* * *

Soon enough Caroline found herself humming along to the classic rock blasting out upstairs as she put the finishing touches to the meal.

Caroline paused halfway through Summer of '69 as she stood before the dining table, plates in hand staring at the candle in the middle of the table.

Everything told her not to light it, not to give the wrong setting too easily there. But… it smelled sweetly of vanilla, and it was already on the table.

Then again, if he noticed it amiss, would he call her chicken?

It was just a candle, she reminded herself. Its dark outside, a candle is totally appropriate.

Although romantic.

She pursed her lips and tilted her head as she decided to follow her urge to light it.

It was just a candle.

She shook the match dead, the smoke curling around the candle's flame, already knowing she had internally justified a goodnight kiss by lighting a damn candle.

But there it was, lit and happy in the centre of the table set for two.

Caroline stepped back, her critical eye drinking in the spread. She tweaked a knife back into alignment but otherwise smiled proudly.

Klaus would appreciate it.

Well, he'd be mildly less pissed, but for his current predicament that was a saving grace.

She flashed up to his room, prepared for hostility and knocked twice, loudly calling his name over the music.

When no answer came, she tried again. Last thing she needed was to walk in on him naked again; there was only so much a girl could take.

"Klaus, you better not be naked." she called through the door and edged it open. The music bounced around the room, the drums a distractingly heavy beat.

Caroline beelined for the stereo in the empty room, silencing it with one button-push.

The eerie quiet rang in her ears.

"Klaus?" she tried once more, turning on the spot.

The canvas had shadows of colours streaked across it. A clearly foul mood had been toying with the colour palette darkening the vibrant oils into a sorrowful state.

"Klaus?" But the silence was deafening. There was no reply, no sound.

Worse; no heartbeat.

Caroline sped into the bathroom, then straight back out when it was empty.

He'd gone.

The bastard had ran off like a sullen juvenile forbidden from a party.

Rage bubbled under her skin, fuelled by a potent cocktail of worry and self-directed blame. It was her fault if anything happened to him.

At vampire speed, she sprinted down the stairs, out past the dinner that was doomed to go cold and forgotten and towards the treeline.

In the trees she stood, pinning back her hair to pick up footsteps or breathing that could belong to an absconding human. There was too much noise from the animals, too much interference and Caroline had no idea how long he'd been gone.

"Klaus!" she called at the top of her lungs, letting her anger fill her to the brim. "KLAUS!" The forest fell quiet.

The animals sensed there was a threat not to cross, and if Klaus had any sense, he would too.

Even the trees seemed to stop rustling in the breeze for a few seconds.

But as her words died, the noise returned. Animals fled, birds cried beating their wings against the air.

It was impossible to hear Klaus.

She'd lost him.

* * *

Mud was caked up her legs, soaking through her jeans to stick them to her legs. Her left heel had broken on a stuck up root and there was a scent of rain in the air she was desperate to miss.

But, there were two thudding heartbeats she was heading towards. Most likely two racoons getting it on by the fast paced beating, but Caroline wasn't risking it. Not with her foul mood.

Klaus was getting a piece of her mind when she found him.

Hell, Klaus was lucky she didn't insist upon locking him in a dungeon cell. Perhaps when his siblings returned to the story they'd insist upon it.

A sick smile grew on her lips.

She'd had enough of Klaus' childish behaviour today.

He'd ran out on her, god damn it.

Into this godforsaken woodland filled with godforsaken smells that were stinking out her hair, and stupid godforsaken animals who didn't understand she was five seconds away from ripping out their spines.

She trudged over another mud puddle only to stop for a smell on the breeze.

Earth, apple and sandalwood.

Klaus.

She'd found the bastard.

She turned to the wind and charged down the scent.

Like tracking a wild animal, she focussed on the delicious smell of the blood pumping inside them.

If the first words out of his mouth weren't an apology, she was going to help herself to a Klaus flavoured milkshake straight from his neck.

She had to admit, he smelled damn good as well.

Her eyes caught the familiar sight of movement ahead and Caroline slowed to a walk. There he was.

The bastard.

Just taking a leisurely walk in the woods.

She was going to kill him.

The amount of worry that man caused her was inconceivable!

She slipped into a crouch, stalking closer to her prey. She wasn't going to stand for a fight, she was just going to grab him, speed him back and shove him in his room. Preferably with the windows and doors locked and that damn stereo ripped from the wall.

Let him scream bloody murder at her. She was ready to give as much as she got.

The tension curled inside her body. He couldn't look any more relaxed, like he hadn't just violated everything for a stupid walk.

Tighter and tighter her anger twisted with the coiled pressure.

A flash of white caught her eye, pounding down past her from the east. Her tunnel vision had lost her predatory advantage and from the trees emerged a dirty white wolf with burning yellow eyes focussed solely on Klaus.

Caroline sprang, pushing at the dirt to intercept the course.

Faster, she pushed herself to a leap and knocked the wolf to the bracken at Klaus's feet, rolling with the impact as teeth and claws swiped at her.

A thundering heartbeat was pounding in her ears. Klaus'.

Fear perhaps.

Panic.

Probably sick enjoyment.

It didn't matter. There was a wolf locked onto her scrambling for purchase.

Claws scraped at her shoulder, ripping the jacket and shirt and spilling her blood onto the forest floor.

Her scream filled the night. Her anger fuelled her mind through, demanding the wolf feel such pain threefold. Her teeth clamped down on the nearest leg to her, breaking the bone through the flank with a sickening snap. Wolf blood filled her mouth and she spat it out instantly; the taste was vile.

In her mind, she knew she should drag the wolf back alive, force it to change and interrogate the answers from its human form. But the muzzle was forcing itself closer and closer to her neck.

She rolled with the wolf, pinning it to the floor. Back legs kicked out, scratching down her jeans and filling the air with the scent of her own blood again, but she was going in for the victory strike.

Her hands held back front paws and when distracted, her teeth tore into its neck, diving deep enough to clamp on spinal bone destroying all chance of life in one quick strike.

The wolf had fought against her well, but Caroline had far too much anger to let it win.

The animal lay dead and she slowly rose.

"I see you changed your mind about the walk." Klaus tried for tease, but Caroline wasn't having it.

Perhaps it was the blood dribbling down her neck, perhaps the vampire veins and pressing hunger she newly felt but he wisely kept quiet when she didn't reply.

One hand bent down to grab the wolf by the scruff of its neck, the other reached out to Klaus, too fast for him to avoid.

She ran back to the house, only slowing when she reach the garden. She dropped the wolf corpse at the French doors but kept a hand on Klaus's wrist, tightly keeping him in place. She walked through the doors, blatently ignoring the cold food and candle burning out its last inch of wax and pulled Klaus with her up the stairs.

"Caroline, love." Yep, he'd seen the candle and his stupid male brain was trying to use her feelings to his advantage to get out of this hole he'd dug.

"No, you don't get to ' _love_ ' me." she hissed as they reached the top of the stairs. She marched to the bedroom, slamming open the door and only just stopping herself from throwing Klaus to the bed. He stumbled to catch himself but seemed non-perplexed by it. Cheekily arrogant, if anything.

"Has anyone ever told you how adorable you are when you're trying to be angry?" he seemed elated, happy… satisfied. What the hell was wrong with him? He'd been seconds away from being wolf chow!

"Trying?!" she snapped, her hair whipping out around her, the messy bun lost in the woods as her bobble fell out god knows where. "I am so far _past_ angry right now. I'm seconds away from wrapping my hands around your neck." But still, he gleefully stood, leaning against the bedpost. And then she realised. He still thought he had the victory; he'd snuck away successfully. The bastard. "Have you any idea how close you came to-" she grunted, why did she even bother? He'd heard this a thousand times before. She clutched her hands in her hair turning around from him. But her anger was far from dissipated. "How can you even think that was a good idea? No, you know what, I don't care anymore. I'm not getting into another fight with you. You're staying in here, you're not leaving, and you're going to find a way to undo this stupid curse. And until then, we aren't even going to think about talking to each other."

"I highly doubt that will last, love." He smirked. "I saw your little planning downstairs."

"Silent babysitting." she summed, miming pulling a zip across her lips and tossing away the key. She sat heavily in the closest chair, her eyes locked on the bastard with the death wish.

"Silent." he scoffed, walking right up to stand in front of her. "I'm sure that will last." Her eyes lanced into him, but he just smiled back. "Of course, there are things we can do to release your tension that need no words what so ever." She pushed to stand, moving to lean against the wall away from him.

He grinned successfully again. "You remember how much energy it cost to try and hate me. You remember how much you were holding back telling yourself you didn't want me." He tilted his head at her. Of course she remembered, the memories were flashing across her mind. "And you remember how _good_ you felt when finally let go of all that hate. Remember how wonderful you felt after finally letting me in."

Whatever his intentions were, she was sure he was winning because her anger was seeping out as lust. "Caroline." He was standing before her again. "Let me in." His hand placed on the wall either side of her head, holding himself from touching her. It was agony.

She closed her eyes.

"Will you just shu-"

In a swift manoeuvre, Klaus slid a hand to the back of her head and pulled her in for a kiss. "Uph, what are yo-" He captured her lips again and her body bubbled with sweet joy. She bowed to him, unable to resist his warmth. Her lips danced with his in an automatic response, but even as he curled her to his frame, there was a flicker of annoyance in her. A flicker turned to a flame at his manipulation of her. "Klau-" but any chance of protest was swallowed in another kiss. Once more, the all too familiar rage was back.

"Let me in." he urged, no idea of her inner fight. His knee nudged between her legs, his hands commanding her to move with him.

"Why is there a dead wolf outside?!" Rebekah's voice split the kiss apart. Caroline instantly moved away, her fingers on her lips, trying to stop the fizzing sensation that had come about them. She looked back at Klaus, the wolf's blood from her face had transferred to his lips. He looked so wildly untameable, so predatory, even as a human.

She couldn't explain it, but even through a red haze, she couldn't cage him with the truth.

"There was a wolf in the garden trying to get in." Caroline replied from Klaus's bedroom. "I killed it." Klaus rose an eyebrow at the lie.

His hand reached out for Caroline once more but she physically stepped back. "Clean yourself up." Caroline whispered and turned from the room.

Rebekah greeted her with an amused but proud grin.

"Look at the baby vamp getting her slayer on." Rebekah praised. "Was it alone?"

Caroline walked with Rebekah over to the corpse.

"So far."

"Guess we've got another witch on the way. And, if they're pulling full wolf shifts without a full moon, they must know what they are doing."

Caroline didn't even consider the wolf's full shift. She looked up to the sky, finding a half moon struggling through night clouds. "Really?" Caroline turned back to Rebekah only to see the disapproving gaze roaming her up and down. "Clean up; you look a mess."

Caroline nodded, taking one last look at the wolf before walking back up to her room. Klaus was outside his door, his eyes on her, the blood removed from his mouth.

She said nothing, didn't even look his way, just walked on and straight through the room to the shower.

She heard his door slam shut violently behind him. She ignored it. She had way more reason to be pissed off than he did.

The bloodied clothes were mostly ripped into rags, there was nothing she could salvage. Even her favourite jacket was meeting the bin. Claws had gone straight through it to her flesh. It still hurt actually. She rubbed her shoulder where the wolf's claws had pierced muscle in its last moment of life, the bloodstained locks weaving with her fingers. She batted them away and tore off what was left of the shirt. Her shoulder hurt quite bad actually, it should have healed by now, perhaps she was just low on blood; she was hungry.

But as she turned her back to the mirror she caught sight of her shoulder.

A cold tension filled her from head to toe.

It wasn't claws that had caught her.

She was dying.

A wolf had bit her shoulder.

A colder realisation seized her.

No more hybrid blood.

She was dead.


	7. Wish

Okay, okay. I know I left you in a bit of a cliffhanger and there have been some desperate pleas (yes, i'm talking about you) for more. So, without futher ado, please indulge yourself in the angst of a vampire with a werewolf bite with a human curse haunting her only cure!

* * *

 **Chapter Seven: Wish**

Caroline sat in her room, jeans and tshirt on her freshly showered body.

She had to go home.

Say goodbye to the ones she loved.

Klaus was still as human as ever, and, considering his current approach to life, he was most likely going to stay that way for a long while. Rebekah and Elijah would hide him around the world until he realised his childish fight and broken pride were hindering his recovery.

And by then, she'd probably be dead several times over.

Tears boiled over and ran hot lines down her cheeks.

"Are you _that_ stubborn?!" A slammed door followed the shout from the corridor. "You're acting like a child, Nik!" There was a threat that sailed through, but Caroline wasn't focussed enough to pick it up. "Oh, I'd love to see you try." came a smart-arse reply from his sister.

Caroline walked to the bathroom and washed the tears from her face, she didn't expect Rebekah to be standing in her bedroom staring at the bloodied towel she'd used to pat down the bite.

"What happened?" she instantly asked, then focussed in on the tissues in the bin from crying and the way Caroline hung her head just that little. "I thought you were fine."

"I should go home." she whispered, the thin cardigan she swore feeling utterly useless under Rebekah's gaze. "Say goodbye."

"Why, wha-" Then Rebekah saw the seeping red stain coming through to the fabric and put a harsh two and two together to get reality. "Caroline."

"I should go home." she just repeated softly.

"You should stay here." Rebekah argued quickly. "Nik has the only cure, and whilst he may be an idiot human now, he _will_ get better. And he will cure you."

A knock came to the door and Elijah's voice came from the other side.

"Caroline. Are you hurt?" She didn't even know he was back yet, but apparently so.

She managed a smile, it was obvious his hearing had picked up the conversation. She opened the door and he paused at the doorway, all too much of a gentleman to step in uninvited. Klaus wouldn't do that, Klaus would break the lock on the door and walk in without a care for her state of mind, or dress.

"I'm going home. I need to say goodbye while I still can." she spoke to the vampire siblings.

"Whilst I understand you wishes, I have to agree with Rebekah." He offered sympathetic features, ignorant of the shocked and impressed smile on Rebekah. "You're only chance at living is here, and you are the best chance at curing him… to ultimately cure yourself. Back home… there is only one option for you."

"And how long will it take for Klaus, the human who was attacked by a pack of wolves and thinks he singlehandedly won, to accept his humanity and cure me? By then I could be dust." He wasn't even accepting the limits they set to protect him. Hell, he'd ran off into the woods almost killing himself. And for what? Nothing?

"If you go home, you are dust. No hope of a cure." Rebekah insisted.

"I should at least tell them."

"And have them worry unnecessarily?" Rebekah fired out again. "You'll stay with Nik, you'll fix Nik and you'll go on to live your airy fairy happy vampire life."

"Strategically speaking, your best chance lies here." Elijah confirmed. "However, I understand if you wish to leave if you feel he have made no progress after a few days. So you can say goodbye."

"I don't even know how long I have." Tears started anew.

"If it makes you feel better, he probably has tetanus from that stupid cut on his arm." It seemed Klaus had refused his sisters healing blood yet again. "He'll probably die soon anyway." But the tears crashed down, consuming her.

"Very tactful sister." Elijah commented sarcastically. "Caroline, if you wish to leave, we will not stop you. However, we do believe it would be in your best interest to stay."

Caroline nodded, running her fingers under her eyes, scrubbing away the endless tears.

* * *

"Why did you go?" Caroline spoke, appearing in Klaus's room without any polite knock or announcement of her presence. If she was dying because of his excursion she deserved to know why. Was it just simply for kicks? For the thrill of disobeying? The rush of getting the better of someone?

Whether he covered the shock well or truly did expect her, he didn't show any surprise to her presence.

"Why did you lie?" he countered.

The shower was running on Rebekah and was the only reason she could speak freely.

"Why? What was so important for you to get out for?"

He sighed and moved to the closet. "Damn it Klaus, what was so I-" Caroline caught the book that was thrown at her. Small and thin he had pulled it from his inner pocket in his jacket. "What is this?"

"Something I couldn't have ever accessed without this curse."

"What do you mean?" She flipped open the book, the ink was faded but brown, a clear sign of writing in blood (her ability to know that was very recent and creepy but as was the pattern in dark witches grimoires). "What is th-" But Caroline read certain common words in the mismatch of ancient languages she had become all too familiar with. It appeared to be centred around the arts of sacrificial magic; spells a witch could cast for the price of his or her own life.

"That is going to break my curse." he spoke confidently.

"Where did you find this?" In awe, she flipped the pages, the artistry growing darker in nature as she went.

"A crypt."

"A crypt? Just lying around?"

"Not quite love." He stepped closer to her, but still respecting a distance. "I'll share if you do. Why lie?"

"I'd only be getting myself in trouble if I told the truth."

"Hardly." he scoffed. "My siblings negotiated you shouldn't be left alone with me. Just in case I decided to dagger you. Apparently I have a history of that." he chuckled. "I highly doubt you would be to blame here." He narrowed his eyes at her. "So why bother?"

"I… I mean… it's not like you need the added problems. Besides, no harm done."

"You lied for me?" He appeared to be piecing something together in his mind, some puzzle that threatened to break his sanity.

"Where did you get it?" she probed instead, crossing closer to him, the book slapped against his chest. "Tell me."

He smiled, taking the book and sitting himself in the chair closest to her, his hand stretched across to the other. She crossed her arms on her chest and stared down at him.

"Fair enough." he stated. "There's a lot of objects that the magical community did not want in the hands of their fellow witches, or any other supernaturals. Objects too dark."

"Like spells books that promote suicide and death curses."

"Like that." he agreed softly. "The witches gathered them and erected a barrier spell around the crypt to stop any supernatural creature from entering, it broke compulsion on any humans that may be sent as errand boys into the depths and repelled those of impure minds from entering."

"So, basically, nobody supernatural could send a human in for them."

"Only a human, free-willing and without greed, evil or impurity on their mind could enter and leave with an object."

"And you passed the code?" she sneered.

"I seek the object to cure me, not to hurt anyone else. Apparently, that qualifies as a pure heart." He grinned, obviously proud to have beaten a witch barrier. "I could hardly have sent someone in my place to go, and we simply could not have passed on this."

"So why not tell me?"

"Would you have allowed me?"

"Probably not." she agreed. "Did anyone see you?"

"Hardly social hour around a graveyard at this time, love."

"You took a risk Klaus, you were lucky you weren't killed." She looked down at the book, perhaps it hadn't been all for nothing. "Are you sure this has the key to your cure?"

"If it doesn't, nothing else will." Of that, he was confident.

"Alright. Good." She heard the shower turn off and their protected speech fall away. "Guess I'll see you for study group tonight then." She smiled at him, covering the pain she felt and turned back out of his room.

It wasn't all for nothing. This book could save him. It could save her.

All hope was not lost.

* * *

All hope was lost.

Study-group, as Caroline called it, turned into an utter failure. Niklaus had created some elaborate story about how he found the book to his cure sealed inside another grimoire's cover. The siblings were full of disbelief and suspicion, but when they got hold of the book, they set aside their distrust for a chance at victory.

But as Klaus pawed through pages of translation, blood staining and fought his own heavy eyelids, he eventually stood, filled with rage and threw the book towards the flames.

Elijah stole the book from its trajectory as Rebekah and Caroline stood in shock.

"There is no cure!" Klaus announced in rage. Caroline had seen Klaus roar and shout, summoning eyes of a werewolf and veins of a vampire, but without either, Klaus still looked equally as scary. His chest heaved with the anger that boiled inside him, rising with each breath. "I shall not remain as I am!" He swiped his arms across the stack of books to his left, scattering them across the floor.

"Niklaus, the spell is written here." Elijah had opened the journal to the page Klaus had found that spurred his anger. "It states…"

"What?" Rebekah hissed, storming across the room to read over her brother's shoulder.

"It states that the curse will be broken when the victim becomes what the wish creates: what they would hate to be." Elijah turned his eyes to Klaus, where he stood breathing in more and more rage.

"And yet here I am. Here I stand." Klaus roared. "And I am not broken from this god forsaken curse!"

"What does it mean?" Caroline asked quietly.

"It means it should be broken when I turn human, the thing of which I loathe the most, and yet I am not free. I am a pitiful example of a man." he raged.

"Then it must mean something else, I mean, it coul-"

"There is no cure!" Klaus shouted. His hope gone, his spirit extinguished and his reality knocking him for six. Driven beyond doubt, Klaus was stuck in a human body for eternity.

Caroline felt the cold hand of death squeeze her tighter, with no cure for Klaus; there was no cure for her.

She was going to die.

She was going to spend her last days of sanity being reduced to nothing by Klaus' anger. He would take his frustration out on her, she knew he would. Even now he turned his eyes to her, was he expecting her to conjure some solution?

His eyes seemed to plead desperation to her, did he expect her to have the solution to something even _he_ could not salvage?

Morality was swallowing her and Klaus could do nothing but blame her with his eyes.

She couldn't help the tears that broke free and she couldn't turn her face to hide them fast enough for Klaus.

His anger blared white hot.

"Really? You cry?!" he snapped. "The idea of me human is so unlovable even the weakest vampire in the world could not stand to face me!" he cut at her spirit, only drawing more tears.

"Klaus, I-"

But he was already beating foot from the lounge, the door slamming against the frame as he left the room.

Unexpectedly, Rebekah's perfume cradled her as she wrapped an arm around her.

"He doesn't mean it you know. He's just… upset." But her attempts at comfort did nothing to stop the tears. "You can't give up."

"Klaus thinks only of himself as he says this." Elijah offered as he re-read the page for the thirtieth time. "He cannot see past his own dilemma." His voice was soft. "But perhaps you could offer him some motivation from a selfless point of view."

"You heard him." Caroline sniffled, rubbing her fingers under her eyes.

"I did. However, Niklaus believes he has all the time in the world to act out and play his emotions, a ticking clock is a great motivator."

"You want me to tell him?" she asked, surprised to say the least. It was the last thing she wanted to do.

"I would like you to consider one last option before you resign yourself to a long ride home and a lot of emotional goodbyes." Even now, he wasn't demanding she stay and fight. A gentleman.

How did one family create such polar opposites in their men?

And why did she crave the praise of the one who would never give it to her?

"What could it hurt?" Rebekah whispered from her side, giving her two pats to her shoulder before standing and turning to her. "Sleep on it?"

Caroline felt herself nodding slowly, sniffling back the tears that threatened to consume her.

* * *

Caroline's brain did not allow her to 'sleep on it'. It did allow her lists and plenty of them. There was another page in her notebook dedicated to a large decision of 'go home or stay and gamble on Klaus', another with 'ways to de-curse Klaus' that was slowly being crossed through as options were exhausted, at current she was working on 'what to leave people when I'm gone' which was a will of sorts for the shoes, handbags and dresses that Bonnie and Elena kept trying to surreptitiously steal from her. She'd gotten as far as a note for her mother as to where to find the childhood album she had hidden because of the photo of her with dreadful pigtails when she'd first played hairdresser with her own hair. That had started the tears.

She stopped only when she heard Klaus's voice again. His heartbeat had moved from his room to the kitchen where his siblings were. She listened in.

" _And where's the third musketeer? Crying somewhere?"_ Caroline managed a smile, however hostile the tone, she could read the concern through it. Even distracted with his rage, Klaus knew something wasn't right.

There was a bang and crash and then Elijah's voice.

" _Rebekah, perhaps you should take a walk around the grounds. I do believe we have a wolf carcass you can take your rage out on which would be far less destructible than your current target."_ Caroline heard a huff, another object smash and then heels clicking on the stones outside like the drums of hell.

" _You know, to say I'm the one cursed, you all seem to have very little to offer in terms of a solution."_

Klaus was getting his ego on fire that other people had their own problems, when he was the one with the biggest issue, or at least that's what it sounded like; a two year old upset on their birthday that someone else had attention.

" _I fear I do not have a solution."_ Even Elijah's controlled tones sounded ragged and harsh now. _"I do however, have a suggestion, if you would be open to such."_

" _A suggestion,"_ Klaus mocked. _"Why not?_ " he laughed. _"What do I have to lose?"_

" _Caroline is in her bedroom."_ Elijah began. Caroline instantly closed her notepad, shoving it under her pillow. She gathered the tear soaked tissues and threw them into the bin. _"I suggest you find an apology for your recent fluctuation in mood and abusive remarks and take this."_ He obviously handed something to Klaus. _"And these. And hope she finds it in her large capacity of forgiveness to speak to you."_

" _I don't n-"_

" _And if she does Niklaus."_ Elijah interrupted, his voice firm and hard. Caroline had never heard him speak like he did to his brother. _"I hope you have the sense to control your anger and understand it will not help the situation you have caused."_

" _I caused?"_

" _Do you wish to stand and squabble over the origins of your curse?"_ The offer was not made peacefully and even Caroline felt a smudge of fear in her heart.

" _It appears I have other things to do."_ Klaus smugly replied and she heard footsteps.

" _Caroline."_ Elijah's voice was now directed to her sensitive hearing, quiet and calm once more. _"My sister and I will be in the grounds."_ It was as much privacy a vampire could have when they were guarding a human with a million and one vengeful predators.

Caroline sped to the mirror, rubbed her fingers over the eyeliner that ran out of line and forced a smile at her reflection. She grabbed the fluffy bathrobe Rebekah had given her and forced her arms into it. The fever was running her hot but she didn't want Klaus staring at her wound the entire time.

Hell, she didn't even know how to break it to him.


	8. Truth

Hello there my darling readers, how I love you dearly.

I have been informed via various reviews you are all _dying_ to hear how this goes. Please consider this your restorative CPR and I do hope you pull through this chapter alive, well and, if possible, smiling.

* * *

 **Chapter Eight: Truth**

"Caroline." Klaus kicked the unlocked door and walked in, like she knew he would. She stepped out of the bathroom and rose an eyebrow to the decanter of alcohol under her arm and two glasses in his hand.

Elijah was definitely a smart man.

"Are we drinking?" she asked with a fake smile for him.

"Apparently you have words to say. I do believe my sibling thinks they would be easier said with this."

"That depends." She sat on the bed, dragging a pillow behind her back for comfort. "Are you going to get drunk and start yelling at me?"

"Sweetheart, I may be a cheap drunk now, but don't expect me to be doing any miracles." He had brought his mood with him, dark and angry at the world.

"You know what, just leave the booze and get out. I'm not in the mood to deal with your damaged ego. " she spoke, exhausted and emotionally drained.

"We're back to this are we, love?" His eyes turned dark as his temperament. "Because who expects any change when you've lived years being the most powerful being alive then dropping to toothless humanity?" he spat, setting the glasses and bottle harshly to the side table. "I should just roll over and accept it, right?" His anger may have faded, but it returned with a fiery passion. "That's what you'd do, right?"

"No" she answered strongly, stopping him in his stride to leave. "I'd fight until I could fight no more, and then I'd find someone to _help_ me fight. I wouldn't just give in and lash out at everyone I loved."

"I guess that's the difference between you and me." he retorted bitterly, self-depreciation strong in his tone. "You _have_ loved ones."

"So do you." she quickly answered but guilt swam in her veins, she knew the struggle he had with his familial ties over the years. "Stay for a drink?"

"And here I thought you weren't in the mood to deal with me. Would my damaged ego even fit in this room?" he turned back to her, the smallest amount of jest in his anger.

"No." she laughed softly, breaking his tense stance. "But please." She leaned forward across the bed and patted the space across from her. He was probably feeling as helpless as she was. Liquor wasn't medicine for the body, but it was for the soul, and Klaus was a broken as she was tonight. "Please." she repeated again when he didn't move.

Whether it was the sad smile she gave, or the proximity of her words to the begging he always craved from her, he complied, tentative in his steps.

"So, what's got you so glum?" he began, sitting on the other end of her bed, his eyes raking over her long legs and landing on her puffy eyes. "Not crying over dear ol' me are you?" His mood flipped back to teasing, a protective layer over his real feelings.

"I am not nearly drunk enough to answer that." she laughed, stretching across the distance to fill two glasses with the brown liquid. "Scotch?" she asked, wrinkling her nose. "And here I was hoping for something tasty." She extended one of the glasses to him in an attempt at peace in their stormy relationship.

He accepted taking a quick sip. Her eyes caught the white taped bandage on his arm. He'd covered it with jackets, coats and long sleeves, but in the comfort of his palace he was in short sleeves and the reminder of the fight with the wolves, part one, was brought to her mind.

"How's your arm?" she asked, pointing to the poorly wrapped bandage he must have done himself.

"Refreshing." he answered around the taste of the drink he loved. She'd seen him drown himself in crates of this previously. "There is a different appreciation for pain between my hybrid self and my newer version."

"You didn't want your siblings blood?" He'd declined the offer twice, she wasn't sure why.

"Hypocritical, isn't it?" he challenged. "Harnessing my inner human to break a curse and accepting vampire blood to deal with a little human pain?"

She nodded slowly, leaning back against the headboard, her eyes seeing his dark mood crumble in her presence once more. He was coming down from his rage-high. Slowly.

She knew the softer she was, the calmer she was; the more his mood would follow hers. She just had to keep him talking before she dropped the truth on him. Perhaps she wouldn't get to see his tranquil smile again after she broke her silence. Perhaps it would be the last teasing remark he spoke to her tonight.

Perhaps after tonight, Klaus would only see pain when he looked at her. Guilt could damage him forever.

It was undeniable, even for Klaus, that _he_ had brought this upon her.

"Do you miss anything?" she asked quickly, before her thoughts crashed her mood. "Anything at all about humanity?"

"No." His answer was quick, he was sure of himself. "Although, I do suppose it would be nice to get drunk without needing an entire brewery." he remarked into his glass, sloshing the liquid from side of side.

"You're a cheap drunk now." She smiled, it touched her eyes, crinkling them.

"I do hope you don't plan on taking advantage of me." he teased, though emptied the glass down his throat in the next second. She rose an eyebrow with a grin, passing him the decanter to refill himself.

"You really need to move past this. It was one time, Klaus." she laughed.

"The first time always is." He grinned. "The second, is where you stop lying to yourself."

"Either way, it won't happen again." she spoke firmly, if not entirely believing her own words. She knew how well Klaus could worm his way into her mind and desires.

The amount of nights she had fallen to sleep with him being the last thing on her mind was innumerable.

"You say so now. Give it time and you'll realise how helplessly in love with me you are."

"Did I say _damaged_ ego?" she laughed sweetly.

"You really should just admit it Caroline, you find me compellingly attractive."

Caroline suddenly sat forward from the headboard, arms extended.

"Oh my god." she voiced, her eyes blown wide. "I can compel you!" the realisation shot through her with happiness.

"Is there something you want from me that you could not just ask for?" His expression was pretty clear what his mind was stuck on; sex.

"I don't know." she whispered, her thoughts dancing through a few thousand possibilities.

"Ask away." He waved his hand forward for her to proceed but the smirk on her face had her doubting it would work. She couldn't resist though. She wanted to know so many things.

For starters, was it all just obsession or did he feel something more? Did he regret giving up his vengeance on Katherine for her?

She decided to start with something that wasn't too risqué. Caroline leaned forward, meeting his proud eyes and latched her compulsion onto his mind.

"Do you still think about us?" she asked. It was innocent enough she didn't mind being caught asking it.

"You don't need compulsion to know that, love." he replied, the compulsion falling away, never having taken hold. "But yes. Every spare moment of thought. Every haunting second." His passion was fierce as he locked his eyes with hers. "If you had not insisted upon it… I would not have left you."

"Where's your vervain?" she asked instead, feeling her pulse in her head demanding she save face and erase her question from him.

"I am currently a human living with vampires. It would be reckless to be without it." he just answered, smugly taking another sip from his refilled glass.

"I can't smell it in your blood." she noted, the open wound under the bandage filling the room with his delicious aroma. She hadn't smelled anything like it. It had a pureness to it that bagged blood didn't. It had a crisp, cleanliness that medicated, over-caffinated humans didn't have.

"Hungry?" he wiggled his eyebrows, a motion that suggested a hunger for something else entirely.

"If I find out where you're wearing it, I could ask you anything." she continued her thought trail.

"By all means, go ahead and strip me if you feel so compelled." He grinned. "But we will be playing tit for tat."

"You know, if you dedicated half of your efforts to get me into bed into this curse, you could be back to vampire Klaus by now." she couldn't help but remark the truth.

"Now now, we both know it's not necessary to have a bed for what I intend." Defensive Klaus used tease and seduction as much of a weapon as women often did.

"My point exactly." But she couldn't fight the smile back. "Don't you want to be back to yourself?"

"More than anything." he swore, a seriousness in his eyes that had her fearful for anything that dared to stand in his way. But where was this passion before? Where was this strength when his hope was thrown towards the fire with that stupid book?

"So where's your list?" she challenged.

"My list?" he repeated.

"Yeah, all the human stuff you could do to cure yourself. All the stuff you hate about humans. Where is it?"

"I strike you as a list person?" his humour seeped through the surprise and confusion.

"Ummm, yeah." she answered like he was stupid. "As long as I've known you, you've been channelling chess master with your plan A, B, C and D and hell, all the rest of the alphabet to make sure you come out on top with what you want. So yeah, I'm asking to see your list. Where's plan Z of how to get you back to your hybrid king fantasy to take back your beloved town?" she probed.

"Sorry to disappoint you sweetheart, but I don't have one." He smiled softly at her, another finger of scotch sliding down his throat.

"Why?" she asked, like it was so simple he couldn't possibly not have a list.

"This isn't a birthday party supply run, love."

Caroline took a second to regret the path she was going to walk down, but he was her last chance at life and she would hate herself if she didn't give him the motivation he needed to succeed; she was going to poke the bear.

"Unless you don't want to." she spoke, looking straight into the eyes of rising anger. "Perhaps you're happy as you are; waiting to die a human." She could almost see the tick inside his head as the rage boiled up.

"We both know there is nothing I would despise more." His eyes darkened to black, the kind that used to flare before the wolf would take over and necks would be snapped, hearts pulled from chests and limbs discarded.

"So where's your list?" she asked again, forcefully.

"Caroli-" he was trying to control his anger, perhaps because of Elijah's words, perhaps because they were finally getting along again. She wasn't letting it happen. Anger brought the truth free.

"No, you want to be your big bad hyrid self again, you need a list, you need to run out of letters making up your schemed and plots to force your own way and get back to being alpha dog and vampire boss." Her fierceness was passionately strong.

"Domination fantasies running away with you?" he teased, unwilling to rise to her bait and reveal his sensitivity under his armour.

"Klaus, I'm serious!"

"And I'm out of letters!" he fired out. "I had plan Z in my hand. I crossed a town that hates me as a _human_ to retrieve a long shot and it fell through. I have nothing more left in my options!"

"So make some more!" she shouted back.

"Why do you even care?!" he hissed. "Am I so repulsive as a human even _you_ could not stand me?" She'd chinked his armour and was seeing the demons lurking beneath.

"Don't start that again!" she warned. "It's important to me because it's important to you!"

"Bullshit!" he called.

"Please, we both know you could never be happy as a human!"

"And all you care about is my happiness, right?" he mocked sarcastically.

She didn't reply and they both fell into silence.

The quiet danced around both of them, daring each to rise to the anger they felt.

Caroline knew he'd see her secret as betrayal, she knew she needed to tell him. But to have him so helpless, he'd think she only cared about him so she could save herself; the way he was used to people ever caring about him, with underlying selfish motives.

But it wasn't true.

As hard as Caroline fought it. She really did care about the hard headed asshole sitting opposite her with a slippery grasp on his anger problems.

She could hear all the remarks he would make now. He'd call her a liar, a deceitful bitch, a manipulative woman. So many things.

"I remember." she started softly. "And I try _really_ hard not to. And some days it's all I can think about and I have to stop myself from buying tickets to New Orleans." He didn't appear to move, perhaps he was scared she would stop her truth. "And yes, some days, I regret it."

"Us." he clarified. He rose his eyes to see her duck her gaze and bite her lip. "And today, do you regret it?"

"Today… is one of the other type of days." she confessed shyly, her eyes in the drink she hadn't touched.

"What are you saying, Caroline?" He had no intention of working her too hard for a confession and risking her changing her mind, but he wasn't going to play on presumptions if she was willing to clarify.

What was she trying to say?

Caroline didn't know. She'd been denying herself her feelings because of what her friends would think. And here she was on her deathbed and it all just seemed so pointless. What was she trying to say: she was done with denying herself, she deserved to be selfish. Yes, he was a psychotic, maniacal, manipulative, domineering, Machiavellian asshole. Yes, he killed mindlessly, completely unrepentant for his sins. But he was capable of so much more. Under the serial killer shell, there was a reason, and beneath that reason was the man sitting on her bed exhausted and empty, but trying desperately to find the strength to fight on when all hope was gone.

"Something happened." she began, her voice quiet as a mouse. "While we were in the woods with the wolf." She watched an eyebrow raise, a question corrupting the peace on his features. She sat forward and pulled down the dressing gown, the blood stained bandage a clear indicator of the rest of her story.

She watched the happiness drain from his face, a white pallor crept to take its place.

"Caroline." he whispered, he leant forwards. Caroline caught the glass as his weight changed its balance. He didn't even notice, his fingers were pushing the gown further down, pulling the tape of the bandage free to see the clear markings of a wolf bite. Both hands holding a glass she couldn't do much more than sit there while he inspected her death clock.

"There isn't a cure anymore." she stated quietly, though they were both acutely aware of that fact.

He sat back and she put both glasses on the sidetable, resticking the tape to her back and covering herself with the gown again; the room had dropped very cold to her skin.

"Yes, there is." he swore.

Hope flooded her. He had a vial of his blood hidden for emergencies, he had a cure with mad scientists, there was a lab with a vaccine. There was life yet. "You need to cure me, love." He grabbed both of her hands, his warmth crashing into her. "Cure me and I can heal you." And like that, hope was stolen away, a dark hole had taken its place.

"Klaus, we're been trying to cure you f-"

"Love me." he insisted, passion in his eyes. "Love me and I will be cured." He seemed determined, focussed on this idea. "Love me and I can save you, sweetheart." His eyes pleaded with hers. "It's the only thing I need to be cured."

It was the only human emotion Klaus was comfortable falling to his knees for. And he had, for Caroline.

She was his cure.

Her love in return would break the curse.

But the promise he spoke only brought more disappointment.

"It won't make a difference, Klaus." she swore, tears threatening her.

"How can you care so little about your life, is it too much for you to even try and find feelings for me?" he snapped, withdrawing from her. "Am I so undeserving of your love you would rather die?"

"Klaus, stop, please." Tears were returning, hot and embarrassing.

"No. Tell me Caroline, why is it not even worth trying?" he was begging for another lash of pain, self inflicting the torment to singe her from his mind.

But her answer would be salvation and ruin for him. "WHY?!" he shouted.

"Because I do!" she snapped. "I already do… and… you're still human." Tears streamed down her cheeks, her voice cracked and she lost the control she craved.

Silence reigned for long seconds.

She heard the bed springs move and footsteps but she looked up to Klaus storming out of the room. Hope had gone and it had taken her love with it.

It was hardly the situation she had imagined, but she had never thought Klaus would walk away from her when she finally spoke how she felt.

The tears dropped onto her hands, the bite soared pain through her and she had never wanted to brood more so than she did then.

But the footsteps that came to her room did not belong to a concerned vampire sibling, she looked up, ready for round two, but Klaus slapped a pad of paper and pen into her lap.

"Wha-"

He ducked his head to hers, crashing his lips against hers, feeling the tears trickle to a stop. He pushed her against the headboard, gripping the wood with one hand and sealing her to him with the other tangled in her curls.

He was warm and tempting, tracing the seam of her lips with his tongue before pulling back. She looked at him, utterly confused, before he nodded to the paper.

"Make me a list." he demanded, grabbing the decanted from the bed and discarding the stopper; he wouldn't be needing it.


	9. Emotions

Let me start by saying I read EVERY review I get. You guy are lovely for taking the time to give a comment, positive or (as seems to be with the last chapter) negative, so thank you.

I apologise if you find my charactisation bad, if you find their personalities out of character, or if you find this offensive and Klaus to be overly abusive (I have updated my warnings on the first chapter). Simply, I request if you do; stop reading my story. Nobody is forcing you to read this. There are brilliant pieces of work I would rather you go and read than stay here in hopes that I change and to only flame me when I don't. I've chosen to write like this because this is how I see this unravelling. I'm not saying how you perceive things is wrong, so I'd appreciate the same courtesy.

Otherwise, I have had some lovely reviews from people who seems to have found this and devoured this story in one sitting, so I hope you enjoy this next chapter. Like I said, this is how I see things going in my mind and yeah, Klaus is an asshole.

* * *

 **Chapter Nine: Emotions**

"The ability of communication and language?" Caroline suggested, curled up on the sofa in the living room. An ice-pack was held against her shoulder, a pathetic attempt to slow the infection.

They estimated three days before she would slip away from them, the countdown was harrowing. The fever that had her throwing off a blanket one moment and curling into the radiator the next wasn't supporting an optimistic three days, rather looking like two.

"I speak a variety of languages love, I highly doubt adding another to my repertoire is the solution." Klaus answered, his hand on her thigh.

In desperation, Klaus had pushed Caroline into Miss Mystic Falls mode and she had thrown herself into the deep dark pit of internet information; currently searching the differences between humans and animals to try and find the trigger to break the curse. Somewhere in knowledge, there lie the answer, something Klaus could channel from human behaviour to set him free and bring her back from death's door. They just had to find it.

"Anche se il vostro italiano è terribile." Rebekah supplied, the Italian accent soft on her judgemental tones. She sat on the floor, surrounded by more codex's and spellbooks, anxious to have her brother back. In three days, if there was no change, her brother would only spiral further into darkness. Rebekah recalled how she felt when Klaus had taken her loved one from her, to have Klaus lose the only woman he had ever dared to love, well; he may never bounce back.

"Twoja Polski jest bardzo złe zbyt." Elijah offered with a smirk, a cup of tea in his hand as he prowled documents for research on werewolf bites. He called it a contingency plan. Caroline called it desperation.

"And for those without inbuilt translators?" Caroline asked, knowing enough from the smirks to know they were both teases.

"And yet still, I am the one somehow able to get what I want when I travel." Klaus corrected smartly, offering no reply to Caroline's obvious lack of language-able ears.

"Yes well, murder translates quite well." Elijah's disapproval was clear. "I do apologise Caroline, that was rude of us. We were merely reminding my brother that he is not as perfect as he believes." Ever the gentleman, Elijah couldn't help but bow to his manners.

Caroline offered him a smile, she couldn't stay mad at Elijah.

"Okay, so not language then." She looked back down at the tablet in her hands, the variety of webpages open to inspire any helpful ideas. "Ummm, mental abilities, forming reason, drawing concepts together, forming argument-"

"Phhh, I think that one's covered." Rebekah laughed, flipping another page over.

"Solving intellectual problems, learning complex skills…" Caroline continued, ignoring the shooting pain radiating from her shoulder as she repositioned herself.

"So what, a few maths questions and a science book or two and I'm cured? I highly doubt it love." Klaus sneered, dismissing the idea.

"Look, I'm trying to help here. But between a biopsychology degree and a year on the internet, I can't find the answers." She set down the tablet and pushed herself out of the chair. Klaus was instantly standing by her side. "I can walk by myself." She shoved past him, gripping the arm of the sofa as she walked into the kitchen for another blood bag.

She could barely control the hunger since the bite. Before, the urge to drink was a tickle in her throat, now it was a scratching claw digging into her demanding she feed. The worst part was that it barely died down when she caved to it. It was the infection destroying her cells, she knew it, had seen it before, had experienced it before, but it had never been quite as demoralising as to have the cure just out of reach, a barrier away.

"Self reflection." Rebekah announced from the living room, obviously having picked up where she left with the tablet. "You need to be able to self reflect and find the gap you have in yourself Nik."

"I do not have a gap. I am gapless. Beyond perfect."

"Perfectly _human_." Elijah interceded with an unwelcome reminder, his voice moving as he crossed the lounge.

"And yet I am the only one in the room able to provide not only a cure to myself, but Caroline. A lot of responsibility for a _mere_ human." Klaus had an ego unparalleled, but being the strongest creature in creature for over a thousand years tended to have that effect.

"Self reflect." Rebekah insisted forcefully.

Caroline grabbed the bloodbag and instantly sealed her lips around it, the dark veins coming all too easily around her eyes, vampire sight skewing her vision into perfect clarity.

"Fine, you want some self reflection, how about this? If I had killed that witch a second faster I wouldn't be in the situation!" Klaus mocked. "In fact, the next time I decide to place myself in the presence of a witch, I will ensure I have a fail safe in place to kill the bitch before she can utter a single syllable."

Caroline leant against the counter, looking into the living room where the original, yet powerless vampire, smirked, proud of himself. She was draining the blood as slow as she could; it was the only moment of peace she got from the pain.

"I fear we may have found our area of work." Elijah submitted from his new seat, turning a page of his ancient text. His new position gave him a direct line of sight into the kitchen, she didn't think he chose the seat by chance. He seemed to have an eye on her wherever she went.

Caroline wasn't fooling herself as to why, although Elijah cared deeply for her health, he also cared for his vulnerable brother who she could easily slip and kill when the paranoid hallucinations began.

And it wasn't a question of ' _if_ they begin', it was _when_.

"Best of luck, Elijah." Rebekah wished sardonically. "Morality isn't his strong suit."

"Turning me into a priest isn't going to cure me." Klaus swore violently.

"Though a healthy respect for humanity would be nice." Caroline muttered under her breath. Original eyes flashed to her, only Klaus was the exception unable to hear her quiet voice. But as she spoke, an idea formed. "Humanity." she repeated slowly. Hope blossomed. "Maybe it's like the humanity switch?"

"Human emotions." Elijah reiterated.

"Six." Rebekah announced, her eyes reading from the tablet on another tab Caroline had opened in her mass google search. "Human emotions boil down to six; happiness, sadness, fear, anger, surprise and disgust."

"So what, we cycle through until he hits each one?" Caroline asked, the finished bloodbag in the bin, her weak body resting on the doorframe.

"Well, we can rule out anger." Rebekah supplied, turning off the tablet and leaning back on her hands to join the group brainstorm.

"I feel disgust has already been cleared as well. Niklaus notoriously has nothing but disgust for our father." Elijah offered.

"Fear?" Caroline guessed as well, following down the same lines.

"I'm not scared of anything, least of all my father." Klaus grinned, leaning back in the chair, hands behind his head.

"There must be something." Caroline tried again, grabbing the cardigan from the back of the chair and re-dressing from the chill that swept her body.

"Sorry to disappoint you sweetheart, but there isn't anything." Although Klaus' attitude had turned more approachable since the announcement of the impending time limit, the cocky edge that was Klaus through and through refused to budge.

"Aren't you scared of dying?" she asked softly, meeting his eyes as she sat down next to him once more. "Scared of losing people you love?" she probed.

"I do not die, and people I love do not die." For him, it was that simple. At least, as a hybrid it had been. His recent shift to humanity was finally confronting him with mortality.

"How about we leave that one?" Elijah suggested, seeing his brother agitated with the line of questions. "Happiness?"

"Please, this is Nik." Rebekah interjected as she swapped her current codex with the stack of grimoires by the door. They must have robbed every witch they ever met to grow their collection as such.

"I have taken many a happy moment in my life." he announced with pleasure, stretching out his legs to the floor. A vampire never had aches and pains for sitting too long, Klaus did.

"Name them." Rebekah challenged on a scoff.

"The first time I daggered you. Pure bliss. I can recreate it if you like."

"Perhaps…" Caroline thought aloud. "It has to be since you've been human."

A quiet thought passed through them all, they accepted it easily and the conversation began anew.

"So we just rule out anger then. We've definitely seen anger." Rebekah slid in, returning to a chair with another leather bound magical cookbook.

"By all means, keep talking, you can see it again." Klaus taunted with a toothy smile.

"Happiness is probably easiest." Caroline nudged in before a fight could break out. "What makes you happy?"

"By all means, allow me to escort you to my bedroom, I can show you first-hand." Caroline couldn't help but smile. That kiss was still haunting her. Not to mention the little voice in her head that kept sighing at the memory of that faithful day in the woods of Mystic Falls.

"Niklaus, the woman is possibly on her deathbed, have a little respect." Elijah reprimanded.

Caroline blushed, she really shouldn't be thinking of Klaus like that, not while dying, and certainly not in a room with his brother and sister.

"Merely offering a solution." Klaus continued like he'd done nothing wrong. "Besides, surely you want your last memories to be spectacular."

"Something else." Caroline pushed them back on track, her blush shoved deep down and hopefully off her face. "Something else that makes you happy."

"As I stated before, my sister silenced for numerous years never fails to satisfy me." He smirked, that beautiful smirk that had her dismissing all responsible and honourable thought.

"Next idea." Caroline quickly snapped, before that smirk corrupted her.

"Who doesn't enjoy a good slaughter?" he joked. "Though, I doubt your conscience would be willing to provide one for me."

"Serious suggestions Nik!" Rebekah sneered. "You can hardly lift a sword, never mind mass murder an army." she insisted, sticking her tongue out as she finished, the jibe she could never do when Klaus was at full form.

"I ca-"

"Although lacking a realistic aspect, it does suggest an alternative hunt that may bring you the same enjoyment." Elijah piped up, the book left open on his lap.

"Hunt… you mean like bambi?" Caroline asked, shocked.

"They mean like thumper." Rebekah translated.

"Rabbits?!" Caroline pushed to sit up. Instantly all three Mikaelsons paused, focussed on the pain across her face. It didn't deter her from her fight though. "Okay, I mean, I know I'm hardly one to talk, having been on the bunny diet. But that was for survival, not fun." she protested.

"Then another alternative." Elijah walked to an old chest, withdrawing fencing swords from its depths.

"I'll fight you brother." Rebekah stepped up to the plate quickly, the aggression to Klaus bubbling all too hot. Thankfully, Elijah drew the sword back into his personal space, away from the sibling issues waiting to be resolved.

"Perhaps when Niklaus is less vulnerable." But the statement was far from a mere suggestion.

"Vulnerable." Klaus scoffed but nodded at the idea, crossing the room to his brother and taking the offered sword.

"You're not going to really fight are you?" But the pair were walking from the room, further away from her.

"He'll be fine." Rebekah claimed the seat Klaus had been in, pinning Caroline to where she sat with a stare. "We, however, need to figure out how to get the rest of these emotions out here."

* * *

Rebekah turned her head over her shoulder, having heard footsteps and laughter coming towards her since the clashing of swords stopped.

"Who won?" she asked immediately.

"I did, sister." Klaus announced with a flourished bow. "Where's Caroline?" Nerves hit him straight away, worry flooding in milliseconds after.

"Lying down. She wasn't feeling too well." Rebekah supplied. "Elijah, would you mind checking in, see if she needs anything?"

Elijah flashed to his sister's side before Klaus could catch up.

"What game are you playing?"

"The same as you." she offered no clarity. "Did you let him win?" she fired quickly under her breath.

"Perhaps." he answered mysteriously, passing a grin and walking away up the stairs and out of the room, as was his sister's wish.

"Nik… sit."

"Dear sister, is there something you wish to share with me?" But he sat, the mood lifted and thereby more compliant.

"Just making sure you understand the gravity of the situation." She rounded the coffee table, like a jaguar sizing up their prey.

"I assure you, I am aware of what is at stake." Even in a good mood, he wasn't ignorant of his sister's tricks, he narrowed his eyes in suspicion.

"Good, because I know how much it would pain you to carry the guilt of killing the one woman you actually truly loved."

"A noble effort sister, but if this is your attempt at sadness or fear, you'll need a better strategy to broach the impossible task." he rose, walking to the staircase.

"Say it is impossible, wouldn't that instantly make you Caroline's executioner?" she walked infront of him, cutting off his path.

"Bekah, I suggest you drop it." But the pet name was asking for sympathy underneath the harsh tone.

"You've killed almost every man I loved so I wouldn't feel a broken heart by them, and still I was broken hearted at losing them. I hated you for centuries." He didn't show any reaction, it wasn't news. "How will you feel when not only the heartbreak of losing her is upon you, but the self directed hatred at being the one to kill her?" she questioned, hard and sharp. There was no pussyfooting around when it came to this.

"And here I thought we were changing topic." he sarcastically bit out and turned, heading for the garden and away from her. Like a pest, she sped infront of him again.

"You're the reason she came here."

"You dragged her here." he pointed out, a finger to her chest.

"She didn't leave. She couldn't because of how she feels."

He sidestepped her again but she followed quickly. A dart to a bullseye. "You brought her here, however way you look at it, she wouldn't be here if you hadn't become greedy for power."

"Rebekah, I don't need to remind you of the consequences of pissing me off." His good mood was fast evaporating, replaced by the darkness of fear. He smothered it with anger.

"She came here, she fought wolves for you. To protect you, to keep you alive, to save you from injury." She saw the rage in his eyes, it bubbled furiously. "And she took that herself. She put her life on the line and now it's at deaths door. Because of you."

"Rebekah!" he lunged out with a punch, she ducked it smoothly, moved back with his walk but continued.

"Your blood is her only chance at a cure, and you're telling me it's impossible, that she'll die."

"ELIJAH, control your sister!" he bellowed.

"You're responsible for her dying. You refuse to admit what you feel and the longer you do, the closer she gets to dying. What will it take for you to snap out of this pride for a second? Does she need to be rabidly fighting for blood that won't feed her? Hallucinating her life back home? Coughing blood and slowly desecrating while you mourn her?"

"ELIJAH, I _will_ kill her!" he warned loudly.

"She came to save you, and now she's dying for you. And this is _all_ your fault." Rebekah felt her back at the garden doors.

"I know that!" he snapped, realising Elijah was not coming.

"She's dying." But the fierceness died out, sadness filled her tone.

"I know." His mirrored. "And I am doing my best to fix this damn curse and cure her."

"What if you're not quick enough?"

"I will be." he swore.

"You don't even know how. How can you possibly promise to save the woman you love without a clue?" Rebekah tilted her head, genuine curiosity. Klaus always had a person to fight, a being to overcome, but he'd always known what he had to do. Now, it was a mystery he had a deadline to solve.

"I will save her. She will _not_ die." As long as he lived he would do everything in his power to ensure she lived.

"What if you can't, what if she dies in your arms?"

"Damn it Rebekah, I am doing all I can, what more can I possibly do?!" Fierce passion flared.

" _Now_ you're doing all you can." she answered smartly, stepping past him, away from punching distance. "That's what fear and sadness feel like, Nik. Pray you don't get too used to them." She turned on her heels, leaving him numb in the lobby, a thousand curses bubbling to his mind, all ready to breathe with a fire at his younger sister.

* * *

Anybody wanna take a wild stab at what will cure Klaus?

Com'on, you have to have ideas. I'd love to hear them :)


	10. Blood

Reviewers: I owe you imaginary zero calorie super dooper chococate supreme cookies! You guys are so good at lifting my spirits. Yes, i'll admit I am only human and some of the flames I had received with this work kinda put a downer on my day, but your support for my writing and characterization was great to hear, thank you :D

* * *

 **Chapter Ten: Blood**

The poison spread for another day, bloodbags littered wherever she sat and she confined herself into the bedroom. Klaus was in the hands of his siblings, safe, but dedicated.

She woke around 1pm to the front door opening. Elijah and Klaus had returned from ticking off another emotion.

Caroline's vampire hearing came and went, at the moment she could pick out the sounds of Klaus' annoyance. It appeared Elijah had taken him for a stroll through the rough end of a neighbouring town, disgust had been fulfilled.

From Klaus's narrative to his sister, it appeared the junkies littering the streets had been enough to turn Klaus' nose.

Elijah hadn't stopped there, he had taken a detour back through the stink of the bayou. She couldn't say Elijah wasn't thorough.

" _So brother, do you feel any closer to humanity?"_ she heard Elijah ask conversationally.

" _That entirely depends on your definition apparently."_ Klaus grumbled. _"How is she?"_

" _Upstairs."_ Caroline heard Rebekah answer the question Klaus didn't ask. _"Feverish."_ Even Caroline could hear the concern in the single word.

It was becoming clear that her days were numbered and even a few more days may be too much to ask. Caroline lifted her phone from the bedding once more, she really needed to work up the courage to phone her mother. Or Elena. Somebody from home.

But the little voice of optimism kept telling her to give Klaus longer, to give him a proper chance before she wrote herself off.

But… he was still human.

" _Nik,"_ Caroline listened back into the floor below. _"Try to get her to drink something."_ Caroline looked at the blood bags around her, she still didn't feel like she had drank any though. The infection was burning through her and the blood wasn't enough to slow it down any. If anything, Caroline had a thought it was using the blood as its own energy to kill her faster.

Human footsteps were coming closer, but Caroline was listening to the words the original siblings said when Klaus was out of earshot.

" _How is she really?"_ Elijah asked, quietly, but not enough to hide his voice from Caroline's ears.

" _A day… at most."_ Rebekah sighed and Caroline heard a glass clink as it was rested on a surface, liquid pouring into it quickly. _"The hallucinations have begun."_ Caroline turned her face to the ceiling, willing the tears to stay where they were. It was true, she had returned from a broken mind to find Rebekah crying at the end of her bed. _"She thought I was her mother… she kept apologising to me."_ Amongst other things.

Caroline scrubbed at the tears.

The timer truly was ticking.

A knock tapped at her door, but in true Klaus fashion, he didn't wait for an answer before letting himself in.

"How was it?" she asked softly, fully aware his facial expression knew she'd been crying.

He came to her side, passing her the cold blood from the well stocking fridge.

"Not quite sure we can celebrate yet, love." he replied sombrely, sitting next to her on the bed.

"So, what's next? What emotions do we have left?" Caroline shuffled in her position, every stretch and inch was agony, but staying sat against her wound was hell. The duvet was around the bottom of the bed, half hanging off, but she was still overheating in her own skin.

The cold touch of the blood bags did little to ease the fire, she gripped them in her hands, careful not to squeeze too tight. "Anger's been crossed off. Elijah took care of happiness and now disgust. Rebekah promised she'd done sadness and fear. So, I guess that leaves surprise." She weakly smiled at him. "I can't say I'm in any state to jump out of the closet at you, but I could try to shock you, maybe." she offered.

"I do not believe that will be necessary." But everything in his tone was sad. He stood, domestically starting to collect the empty blood bags from around the room. "I fear your theory may have hit a speedbump." he confessed, piling the empties into the bin.

"But, we still need surprise."

"Sweetheart." he paused and turned to her. "I believe your confession was enough to claim that sixth of my humanity."

"Oh." When she'd told him she loved him… in a matter of words. Then she realised what he was saying; they were out of emotions. "Oh." she panicked, smothering it with a verbal rush. "It's okay, we can… I mean, we can go back to research, there will be something. Or maybe we didn't do one properly."

"Love." he sounded as broken as her spirit felt. "Plan B." he encouraged. His fingers found the first aid kit that had been left by her bedside filled with gauze and bandages.

"Okay, it's all on the tablet, I think…" A headache was blooming, another side effect of the bite. It scattered her thoughts, making it difficult to think for a short burst. It usually came before her vomiting all the consumed blood into the toilet bowl. "I think Rebekah has it." she continued.

"Later." he insisted as she made to move. "You need to drink."

But the blood bag has turned unappealing, it made her remember how she puked up her insides only an hour ago.

"I can't." she whispered, a blinding pain in her head distracting her. "I keep bringing it up… I… I can't."

"Caroline?" Klaus was by her side as he noticed her distorted words and thoughts. "Caroline?" he ran a thumb across her hand only to find terrified eyes looking back at him.

"Are you going to kill me?" she asked quietly, the fear real and purely directed at him.

The hallucinations didn't have triggers or warnings, but this one was of him.

Not the him he was now, but the him that sank his teeth into her out of anger and vengeance. The him that used her to manipulate his will. The him that shamed him.

She was a rabbit before his hybrid powers once more, believing in the monster the myth spoke of. This part of Caroline had no idea how he felt.

She had no idea how _she_ felt.

"No, sweetheart." he answered, having no idea whether he should play along or not, but to let go of her hand could risk her fleeing out of the window lost for hours.

"But you won't heal me." she whimpered, her eyes flashing at where they touched like she expected claws to come out and sink into her flesh at any second. She flexed her digits, fighting to be free.

"No." he swallowed the ache that came with the word. He _couldn't_ heal her.

He watched a sadness floor her, one she seemed to adapt around all too quickly for his liking. It was as if helpless was all she knew.

"I suppose I shouldn't expect too much, you _do_ want to kill my best friend." He felt like he was staring back into their first meetings. The days when she didn't know how beautiful she truly was. Or how much she mattered to him.

"Perhaps I have changed my mind, sweetheart, perhaps I no longer wish for that." Anything to see her trust in him again. For her mind to change on him. To love him once more. To fight beside him, not against.

"You need her blood." Logical, even in death.

"Caroline, sweetheart." He wrapped his fingers further up her icy skin, the clammy sweat ignored entirely. But he watched her blink, he saw her draw her free fingers to her head and rub at her temple. "Caroline?" She flashed her eyes to his only to realise she had lost herself again.

"Klaus," she whispered, tears returning. "I'm getting worse, aren't i?"

"Nonsense love, just a little hiccup."

"No. It's not." Her voice was soft, but firm in her directions. "I need you to promise me that you'll explain this to my mother."

"Caroline, you can do that yourse-"

"No. Promise me." She gripped his hands hard. "Promise me, that when you do finally break this, you'll go and see my mother, and tell her that I love her and that I'm sorry I didn't come back to say goodbye." Klaus had promised people a lot of things, mostly regarding the pain he would be delivering to them, but not a single promise had ever weighed as heavy as what she proposed. "And…" she had her dreamy smile on again, the one that made him forget all the evil plots that consumed his devious mind. "Please don't forget me." she laughed. "I know it's a selfish thing to ask, but… I feel like you owe me that much."

"I promise." His voice held true, dark and yet honourable. "I doubt I could ever forg-"

"Caroline!" Elijah's firm tone preceded his entrance to her room. "Apologies, but you must stay here and keep this door locked." A blade was thrown to Klaus and only through years of muscle memory did he catch it. "Klaus, this door does not open for anyone."

"What's happened?" Caroline asked, struggling to sit up, her want to protect Klaus was strong, but her body was weak, it dragged her down with gravity. "I can help." She would try her best, but nobody was believing that statement.

Elijah flashed to her side, urging her back into the bed.

"Niklaus, stay with her." Elijah didn't have to ask twice.

"I can help." she protested. "It's not like I can die twice." she grumbled, making another attempt to her feet. Elijah pinned her with a glare as Klaus barred her exit from the bed with his body.

"Caroline, you may either choose to stay here, or I can compel you to do as such," Elijah's options were fair and Caroline sank back into the bed.

The door closed and she watched Klaus spin the key in the lock.

"Is it wolves?" Caroline asked, her vampire hearing choosing that time to fade out. Klaus didn't reply, not that he would know the answer, he was using his body weight and strength to move the dresser in front of the door, barring it with a chair as well. "Probably." she guessed, closing her eyes.

Barely two seconds after the furniture stopped moving, did the lower floor find destruction. Even to human ears, the smash of belongings was perceivable. The floor vibrated as another impact sounded. It was violent, whoever was down there.

Caroline watched Klaus turn the blade in his hand, readying himself for a fight.

Defended by a human, she thought bitterly, releasing a bubble of laughter.

He turned to the sound, realising the problem.

Without his strength and speed, he could not protect both himself and Caroline.

He couldn't, and wouldn't risk it. He scanned the room and found his answer, marching over to Caroline.

"Com'on love, put your arm around me."

"Now is hardly the time Klaus, can't you seduce me later?" she asked sleepily but looped her arm around him, stumbling as he prompted her onto her feet.

"We're going somewhere safer." he promised, helping her to the doorway of the bathroom. She stumbled herself to the coldest place there, fighting her fever as she sat in the shower, her feet dangling over the small lip as she did, but the tiles were cold and comforting.

Klaus shut all the windows, creating an obstacle of the chairs and bed before locking himself in the single doored bathroom with her.

She looked so small, so fragile.

So human.

"It hurts." she mumbled and Klaus came to her side, sitting on the lip of the shower, a glass panel jabbing into his ribs, but Caroline was curling into him on the other side and he couldn't find the will to complain.

"I know, sweetheart." he soothed, rubbing a hand down her arm, up and down. "I'm here." The other hand squeezed the blade handle, he was ready.

Tiredness was taking over her, drawing her to close her eyes and lay her head against his shoulder. "Stay with me, love."

"I'm here." she parroted back to him.

"You'll fight this, Caroline. You are strong." he swore, desperate for the words to be as true as he felt they were. She had to hold on. She had to.

Another thud shuddered the walls, a hollowed scream followed.

By the sounds of the war, Elijah wasn't playing by his usual gentleman's rule book.

Klaus could dare to imagine he may even take off his cufflinks and tie tonight.

"I regret it." A small voice whispered next to him, her eyes still closed, her body heavily leaning on his.

"Caroline?" he asked softly.

"I didn't think I would." she admitted in a breath.

"Regret what, love?"

"I should have gone with Klaus."

Klaus froze, whoever she thought he was, she was unravelling to him. "I should have gone to New Orleans." she continued dreamily. "You let Elena go and look, she's with Damon." Klaus pieced together his new identity as Stefan. "I just don't want him to forget me." Tears slid down his arm where she rested her cheeks. "Is that crazy?"

"Hush, love." he soothed, wrapping both arms around her, the cold steel of the blade clinking as it touched the shower wall.

"I could be with him right now." she continued.

"You are." He held her, but she seemed too lost to hear his words. There was no reaction to show she heard his words or familiar accent.

The tears finally stopped well before the crashes and destruction from below. When Rebekah announced herself and ripped the blockades away, Caroline was passed out in his arms, her shoulder seeping blood from the angry bite.

"Klaus." Rebekah stepped over the wood from the hole she had made in the door. "It can't wait any longer. We need to move you. Both of you." Rebekah's eyes scanned the body in her brother's arms. They were cutting it far too close for comfort.

If her brother was ever going to pull his humanity out of the bag, he didn't have long to do it. "Collect whatever you like, but we leave in 10 minutes."

* * *

In a new bed, a new room and new house, Caroline lay, feeling sorry for herself, but not alone.

Elijah and Rebekah were pulling out a final plan, a way to freeze her body, stop the poison in its track and essentially hibernate her until Klaus was hybrid again. They had expectations that Caroline's timer would run out before Niklaus found his humanity. Thus, the contingency plan.

At present, result weren't looking too good. There was no guarantee the infection would not kill her in her induced 'sleep'.

But Klaus was by her side. He rarely ever left since they had arrived there. He'd been telling her of the first time he had walked into New Orleans and fell for the city.

With the way he spoke, she couldn't help but wonder if he would give it up for small town Mystic falls.

She wondered if he would have stayed with her there if she hadn't insisted he leave on that faithful day.

And then she wondered how he would cope, when she was gone.

Would he blame himself?

Would he regret his choices?

Would he realise that despite his curse, she was the one paying for his sins?

Would he think of her?

Caroline felt her mood drop. All of the time she had spent in denial of her feelings and she could have spent it with Klaus. She doubted they would have ever been the lovely dovey couple together, but now she may never have a chance to know what they could have been.

She may never know how Klaus truly felt; beyond the obsession, beyond the chase, beyond the primal sexual need.

"If I was healthy." she began, surprising him from his reveree. "If I hadn't been bitten and I had said what I did?"

"What was that, love?" his fingers were already woven with hers.

"You know perfectly well." Her raised eyebrow perfectly answered him without a word.

"Oh, that you don't regret us?" he jested with a smile.

"Well, yes, but, I mean the other thing."

"I fear my human memory is failing me, refresh my mind." He played her well, drawing out a smile with tease and taunt. Even dying, Klaus knew how to bring out her smile.

Cupid really did know what he was doing, she guessed.

"That I… damn it Klaus, you know what I mean."

"Perhaps if you can't say it, then it isn't true."

"Fine." she huffed. "If I were healthy, and I had told you I loved you, what would you have said?"

"Less of said, more have done. In fact, I dare say I recently experienced something that summed my action up well."

"You did?" worry flooded her. Another woman? How? Where? When?

"I dreamt."

"And it wasn't about mass slaughter?" she mocked softly.

"Of you." he corrected, his eyes meeting her, fingers winding. "Of you coming to me in your little short dresses, of accusing me of something entirely true." She scoffed a laugh. "And then I endeavoured to help you see things my way."

"Let me guess, blackmail and manipulation."

"Hardly love." He smirked. "You infact fulfilled a very favourable fantasy of mine."

"I don't need three guesses to figure out what that was about, but I can safely say, no matter what smut is filling you mind, it won't be happening."

Klaus wouldn't let that darkness grip her though.

"Hold up, love. This is my dream, and you do not get to change what happened."

"Fine, what sinister seductive plot did you pull out of your devious mind this time?"

"You are hardly one to talk love, the amount of times you played my desire for you to better your chances of victory are enumerous."

"We aren't talking about me, remember." she swiftly corrected.

"Then perhaps I should continue with my narration of my dream?" he teased.

"Fine, go ahead. In what perverse way did you defile my body in your subconscious?"

"For starters, you were much more pliable than you are now. That fierceness was channelled into a much more lucrative outlet; passion."

"Oh my god, Klaus get on with it, before I die of boredom."

"Strange that you beg." He crooked a smile. "You did just the same in my dream, only you begged me to rip off your dress."

"Great, another domination fantasy, courtesy of your deprived upbringing." she narrated quietly.

"Hardly my upbringing at flaw here Love. Not when it was you doing the begging." He crept closer. "Not when you purred my name, pushed up against the wall."

"Unlikely." she whispered.

"When you moaned for more as my hands slid down your body and under your dress."

"Quite the imagination."

"Begged me to pin you where you stood, slip my fingers into your panties." he continued, a gleam in his eye that was all too familiar.

It brought back the memory of her back at a tree, the bark hard and sharp, but his body firm and responsive. "Seeking my lips for each kiss." he unnecessarily elaborated.

The memory flashed bright, when he'd twisted his tongue with hers, his taste driving her mad for more. The unleashed passion finally able to touch him, to taste him, to grind her hips on him.

"Giving in to what you've only been replaying in your mind."

When his hands had gripped her top, parting it with the smallest tug and sealing his lips to her breasts. The ways her fingers knotted in his hair, desperate to keep him there, to continue the chase of pleasure.

"Letting me take from you what I've craved, letting me guide you in what you wanted."

When he'd finally replaced his fingers with his hard length and sheathed himself fully inside her. The relief, the pleasure, the ache, the risk, the dark pull finally able to snap.

She had indeed moaned his name.

Loudly.

"Just a dream." Caroline spoke to Klaus, eager to shake off the speech that was drowning her, but her eyes still saw that memory carry on playing, as he gripped hand on her hips, driving her down as he thrust up.

"Perhaps, but the moan that lives in my head playing on repeat is far from mere fantasy." he jested.

Carline could feel the touch of his hands in the memory like it was reality. She could feel the squeeze in her chest as the pleasure built. "Perhaps a tune you want to be playing now." he spoke curiously, noting the far away look in her eyes, the lack of presence in her body.

He hadn't intended as such, but it looked like his words had brought her a burning memory to her forefront. A memory he wished to relive as vividly as she was.

He could see her nipples peaking beneath the cotton of her shirt, the flush that broke the sickly pallor to scream arousal to him. Had he retained his enhanced nose, he would guarantee she would stink of arousal.

All for him. For his words.

For Klaus.

How he longed to be there, to give her that.

He watched the dark veins break out across her skin, the vampire sight seeing reality and fantasy as one.

She met him with dreamy eyes, evidence of lust lighting her body.

One more kiss.

Would it be as simple as a childhood fairytale, would love's kiss break his curse?

A cruel twist of humanity against love.

Had Caroline held the cure to her poison all along.

Klaus cross the distance between then, watching the fantasy curl smoke through her sight.

One kiss.

One taste of her pale lips could be all he needed.

He touched his fingers to the silky locks, any attempt to ground her in the present, he wanted her here when he kissed her.

Caroline saw the memory in full bloom, the way he groaned into her neck as he came, the way his fingers sped vampire speed circles on her clit, shooting her up higher into an orgasm than she had imagined.

Everything was at peace, the scent of his cologne, of the woods, of the blood on her back, gouged by the tree.

And then came the hunger, the intrinsic desire to drink from your lover.

Klaus had given into it without hesitation, she felt the sting of his fang sinking into her chest, biting her breast and drinking deep.

Caroline saw the bedroom wall of a familiar place for a flash of a second and then all her senses became about a new smell.

A smell that didn't belong in the woods.

One that didn't even belong to the hybrid king pleasuring her.

But it was infront of her.

And it smelled delicious.

Her gut clenched and screamed, demanding she taste the ambrosia before her.

The colours of the world blurred entirely, she couldn't focus on sight or sound, the smell of the blood was all she could think about. Even the headache that spiralled through her nervous system with agony was dying back.

The blood.

The scent burned at her brain, demanding she answer its call and drink.

The delightful scent was overpowering, how could she say no. Like a livewire struck inside, it brought deadcells to life.

Her vision swam, walls replaced the woodland in their blurred colours, but the meal before her stayed as sweet and strong as promise.

"Caroline?" It was even calling her name.

How could she deny it.

Could it taste as good as it smelled? Would it?

She had to taste.

"Caroline, what are you seeing?"

A delicate buffet laid out before her, its warm hands inviting her closer, her mouth watering for just one taste.

It took one simple push of energy and she had the meal on its back, pinned where it lay, its waist straddled as it pathetically tried to wriggle in fight.

Weak hands pushed against her, it didn't matter. Even if vision had gone, the hunt was based on that sweet sweet smell that fear only made sweeter.

Caroline pinned her meals arms to what felt like bedding and sunk her teeth into the neck that tried to thrash its head free.

Sweet mercy; it was heavenly.

Exquisite.

A fine wine that ran down her throat like soft butter.

She ached for more.

Her lips sealed tightly around the wound, draining the nectar that the gods had bestowed upon her.

This drink was something else entirely, it was pure, bright and simply beyond words.

She pulled back only to lick her lips, the scent filling the air with its sickly sweetness.

She dove back to the flesh, the elixir sucked from the fountain of life once more.

The fighting beneath her was finally dying off; the donor was a warrior even in the last few moments of life.

Admirable really.

Caroline could feel clarity once more.

She could feel the dribble of blood that had ran down her chin and into her cleavage as she sat back from it.

She could feel the dying pulse beneath her.

Caroline opened her eyes to the ruby red before her, the sweet sweet blood lust consuming her with a high incomparable to anything else on the planet.

"More." she demanded.

She would go back until she had licked every drop from the open carcass.

A smile captured her lips, her fingers splaying on the body before her, her sight clearing up to see the tattooed birds her fingers splayed over as she gripped the shoulder of her meal.

Pretty.

She stared at the bubbling wound once more.

Another drink.

All too soon, she felt hands on her, ripping her from the nectar.

She fought back on instinct, punching and kicking for freedom.

She won, speeding back blindly to the source of her elixir.

So sweet.

The hands were back, on either side of her head and Caroline felt the twist that snapped her spine.

Darkness.


	11. Heart

Last Chapter doodlebugs. Just wanted to say thank you for all the super sweet reviews, encouragement and support. It also appears I should apologise for the apparent addiction issues this story created for a few of you - sorry ;)

This wraps it all up, sorts it all out and should make you eye roll with an 'oh my god, seriously?' once, and smile about three times, perhaps feel sad the once too.

Thank you for everything. I only hope this fits with your opinions so far of this story and that you enjoy the ending.

* * *

 **Chapter Eleven: Heart**

"Ow." Caroline rolled over and clutched her neck. "Oh god." she groaned. "Who broke my neck? Again?" she complained, rolling over to her hands and knees on the floor. "And why am I on the floor?" she grunted, straightening out. Only her location offered no comfort. "Where the hell am I?" She spun 360 degrees.

The door opened quickly and the two original vampires she had been cohabitating with appeared. "Rebekah? Again?" Caroline hissed, cradling her neck.

"Actually, that would be me." Elijah answered, his eyes narrowing and he let himself into the room, walking a circle around her. "Fascinating."

"I don't understand." Caroline voiced. "What happened?"

"I think that's my line." Rebekah replied softly, amazement in her eyes.

"Remarkable." Elijah commented.

"Look, the last thing I remember, Klaus was telling me about the first time he saw New Orleans, and… then, I don't remember." She spun around to find Klaus, but found something else. No pain.

Caroline touched her shoulder, no bite, no bruise, no pain. Her colour was back.

Her temperature was settled.

"I can't believe it!" Caroline announced happily. "How did he do it?"

"He didn't." Rebekah answered.

"I don't understand." Caroline repeated.

"Yeah, neither do we." Rebekah walked into the room, following the circle her brother had made around her.

"How am I alive?" she asked.

"I honestly do not know." Elijah spoke. "I thought you were dead." When he'd snapped her neck, he had presumed she would die from the poison in her system on the very same floor she had risen from.

"We were debating how to break it to Nik when he came back around." Rebekah added.

"When he came around?" Caroline asked, but in the same second, she noted the dried blood on her fingers, the obvious stain where it had been dripping down her skin, the residual taste of sweetness in her mouth. "Oh god, where's Klaus? What did I do?"

Caroline burst from the room following the sound of a sluggishly slow heartbeat in another bedroom.

She stood in the open doorframe frozen solid.

Klaus.

"He hasn't woken." Rebekah stated.

"How long?"

"You were out of it for four hours, it appears your body needed that time to heal." Elijah offered from behind her. "I believe we made an inaccurate presumption regarding his blood. It does not appear to have changed as his current state was."

"I almost killed him." Caroline whispered, finally finding the strength to walk closer.

His body lay in the fresh linens of the bed. His skin was white from blood loss. His heart beat was an echo.

He looked like he was sleeping.

If it wasn't for the shallow breathing, he'd look dead. "I almost killed him." she repeated, crossing to him, falling to her knees at his bedside, her fingers wrapping around the hand that lay close to her.

It was cold.

Cold like a blood bag stored at the back of the fridge.

Far too cold.

Klaus was strength, even as a human.

Caroline had stolen that from him.

* * *

Elijah and Rebekah moved around the house while Caroline grieved, she heard them aligning magical items, creating weapons, fortifying the small hut.

Hourly, they came in, trying to feed their blood into his system, but everything they gave seemed to have no affect at all.

Caroline looked at Klaus once more, she had been sat with him for nearly six hours and he still hadn't changed. She couldn't help him here. But she could help his siblings protect him.

She forced herself to stand, her touch lingering on his fingers before she walked herself into the main lounge where the siblings worked.

"Do we know what we're up against?" she asked when she noted the wards painted on the floor.

"Amongst the mass of people that my brother has crossed over the years, there is a witch with a nasty penchant for mind control." Elijah replied. "She married into a family from Salam and became very quickly addicted to the dark magics. She managed to obtain a lot of power and access to the direct Salam bloodline."

"She mind controlled her husband to ' _voluntarily_ ' merge his magical soul with hers." Rebekah corrected, adding air quotes with her fingers. "She refused to help Klaus when he wanted some mind control magic and as a result, her children met a grizzly end." Rebekah rolled her eyes from where she stood. "So, with a stolen soul, the little cheat had access to the bloodline message and the Klaus hate to encourage her to cross the globe to hunt him."

"She appears to be using her magics to control the wolf packs, forcing their shifts outside of the full moon, filling them with rage beyond their understanding for Klaus." Elijah finished.

"And she's decided to make a personalised visit." Rebekah offered with false cheeriness, throwing a jar to Caroline.

Caroline caught it, the thick brown liquid sloshing up the sides as it moved. "So paint."

"How exactly does this help? Witches aren't exactly my speciality." she admitted, turning the jar in her hands.

"As much as it may seem to be otherwise, this is not a mere log cabin in the woods." Elijah offered, taking the jar from her hands and pointing her to the magical marking on the ceilings and walls. "My brother wisely decided to create a sanctuary when he last crossed several witches."

"Something of a hobby of his." Rebekah sneered.

"Magic is useless within the perimeter of the building." Elijah highlighted, opening the jar Rebekah had tossed to Caroline and dipping his fingers into the mixture. "This merely ensures the glyphs that protect this building remain at full strength, especially considering the expect assault."

"Paint over them." Rebekah insisted, passing her and shoving another jar with the same liquid into her hands.

"There's blood all over the walls of the room that Klaus is in, is that… protection?" Caroline asked.

There was a moment of pause before Rebekah gave her the response that could only be heard from mass murderers.

"Where else would you take witches to torture them?" and with a smile, Rebekah went in to try to give her brother another dose of sibling blood.

* * *

Fully fortified and as prepared as possible, there was very little left to do, except wait.

It had been a full day and Klaus was only looking paler.

Caroline was racked with guilt.

It hadn't been the many enemies that killed Klaus.

It hadn't been a vicious curse.

It had been the one that hid how much she loved him until driven mad by poison.

The one who made him feel only to take it away.

The one who couldn't control her hunger and drank his life essence away like a bar drink.

Killed by love.

Caroline was back at his bedside once more. Elijah and Rebekah were arguing over a chess strategy as they played through the night.

Klaus' dying heartbeat was enough to drown them out.

Enough to fill her with a need to make it right.

Perhaps her last chance to.

Caroline laid herself on the bed next to him and took his hand once more.

This time, she crossed a line she doubted he would forgive her for; if he was at full strength.

"I was wondering when you'd turn up." Caroline turned her eyes to the voice that haunted her.

His back was to her, seated at a rickety café table, town folk walking around the small cobbled streets like they didn't even know they existed.

"I didn't know if you'd want to see me." she spoke tentative of his mood swings, but advanced slowly, stepping into his gaze.

It was the same Henley, the same old tight jeans, the same smirk playing on his lips. Still, she couldn't guess his mood to save her life. Even then, it could flip at the drop of a hat.

She cautiously took a seat opposite him, noting his laid back demeanour, his back against the painted iron chair, his hand extended to cradle the coffee cup on the uneven table. "Where are we?" she asked.

He finally met her eyes, like a secret was broken, he waved a hand to the scenery. "Paris." he introduced to her, a magic trick revealed. "The Paris I always wanted you to see."

Perhaps it was the tall buildings but the iconic Eiffel tower was far from sight.

Instead, laundry was draped between window and balcony, stringing like lanterns across the narrow winding streets. Shutters and flowers troughs adorned windows like a picturesque image she had only seen in museums and Klaus' paintings. Was this his inspiration?

"This is what you dream of?" she questioned. Apparently, there was accusation in the tone and it turned him sharply on the defensive, as was so familiar.

"No love, this is simply what I wanted to see before I died."

"A stupidly small town?!" she grumbled, anger at herself, at him. At the world that threatened to rob him from her.

"No." he growled. "You, in this stupidly small town." He stood quickly, throwing his napkin down to the table. "I said I wanted to show you Paris, and here you have it. I can die at ease now." he sneered, mocking himself.

"So you _are_ bitter about this?!" She rose to her feet as well, following behind him as he began to weave between imagined people and narrow streets. "You're not dead yet Klaus, there's a chance." Even Caroline heard the lie she spoke, his heart beat was slowing with every hour.

"Yet being the operative word sweetheart." he chuckled as he walked on. "I have killed enough people to recognise the common signs. There's no need to play around that issue."

"Klaus." Caroline spoke softly, her anger drained. It was her fault. He was right; he was dying. "I have had moments I have been so mad at you I have wanted to drive a stake through your chest, I will admit that, hey, wait," Caroline caught up to him, wrapping her fingers around his arm and pulling him to a stop, to face her. "But I didn't mean this." She waved a hand over him, the pale features were gone in this alternative world, but the humanity haunted him. "This is not what I wanted. I'm sorry."

But the backlash she expected didn't come. Instead, he put a hand to hers, where it rested on his bicep in case he started his pacing again. It was warm and comforting.

"You need not apologise, sweetheart. We both know I have done far worse to you. Besides, you were delirious." he paused, narrowing his eyes. "Which you no longer are…" he presumed.

"Your blood." she admitted. "It never changed. You had the cure all along." She smiled as he groaned and rolled his eyes. Her sentiments exactly.

"Fucking witches." he cursed. "Twisted little minds."

"It's not the end, Klaus."

He saw hope in her eyes, but he knew reality all too well, he knew his body was shutting down. He could feel the lethargy of his world, he could feel the colours slowly bleeding out of his vision.

"It is, sweetheart." But he rose a hand to her cheek. "And I cannot spend the time I wish apologising for all the ways I have wronged you. I can only be thankful you see you one last time." He watched her eyes blow wide as she realised what it was, it was goodbye. "If I am to die, Caroline, it would have been to protect you, at least I can say that."

"You're saying goodbye." she accused him softly, trying to ignore the way her eyes glimmered with tears.

"See Paris, Caroline." His touch drained from her cheek, it burned her neck as it cradled her, it roared a fire down her arm and then, as fingers fell from fingers, she felt a frost cling to her body.

"No!" she charged after his attempt to leave her, the buildings fading from sight as she did. He was pushing her out. "You need to yell at me! You should be angry!" she demanded. He said nothing, just let another piece of his mind close down from her, the cobble stone roads turning to nothingness. "No!" she cried. "This isn't right. You can't leave me like this!" she chased his arms but ghosted through it. "You should be demanding one last kiss. Another confession!"

"See Paris, Caroline."

Caroline blinked and she was sat at his bedside once more. A sadness and fear gripping her too tight to think clearly. She pushed back into his mind, his feeble strength not enough to keep her out.

She manipulated his memory, putting them in the mansion in New Orleans, where he battled her with his ego and torment.

"Klaus!" she called out, chasing a smell up the stairs where she found him painting a somber scene.

He tried to shove her out the moment he saw her. "This isn't fair. You don't get to live hundred of years and not even give me so much as a decade!" The colours all bled together and Klaus had once again shut the door of his mind on her.

She pulled him back into a memory of her on her deathbed from his bite the first time he did it. Back in Elena's house.

She barely managed a word before he pushed her out.

This wasn't the goodbye she was settled for though. She needed more.

She had one idea left, one she hoped he wouldn't say no to.

She pulled his mind to a familiar forest, emerging herself from a thicket of trees.

His eyes roamed the forest and he located her with ease, the memory flooding back.

A smirk played on his lips.

"Really?" he asked. "I suppose I should be happy at least this memory is a good one."

"Of all memories, this is the one I figured you wouldn't be so quick to push aside."

"It's a good memory." She wore the same floral top, the same grey jacket. Identical black boots with fur trim that she had insisted upon catching when he'd thrown them from her in the heat of the moment. "And you have excellent dedication to the accuracy of it." He smirked once more. "I'm guessing you even remembered the pink bra and panties."

She smiled and pushed aside the jacket and strap of the top showcasing how right he was.

"I don't like us leaving it like that."

"I don't wish for an emotional goodbye, Sweetheart. It hurts enough to know I will not be the last one you love."

"I don't want you emotional, Klaus. I just want a goodbye that doesn't involve some choice words and having to watch you walk away."

"And what would you prefer?"

"You." She crossed over to him. "Just you. The annoyingly commanding, egotistical asshole of you. The evil psychopathic killer who only shows his soft side to me."

"I hate to disappoint but even in my dreams I am human through and through. There will be no evil psychopathic killing show."

"No. But there's still you under this sadness and anger." She finally clicked with what she was asking. The Klaus that had called out to her most was the Klaus that cornered her in the forest, pursued her until she confessed how she felt. The Klaus that demanded he would be the last one to love her. The Klaus that invaded her dreams to tease her with kisses. "Please." she whispered, a soft beg requesting permission before she moved.

Soft and slow, she curled herself into his willing arms, raising to her tiptoes, a hand snaking from his shoulder and around to the nape of his neck. "Please." she begged against his lips.

She leaned in closer, taking the distance between them as she pressed her lips to his.

His arms snared her instantly, drawing her into the heat of the kiss.

Perhaps even he didn't realise this was what he wanted.

One.

Last.

Kiss.

"Caroline." he spoke, his voice cracking, his chest dragging a sharp breath.

Klaus' armour had finally cracked all the way through. Bare, exposed and facing death he was stood alone with her, finally able to admit he was scared.

Scared of not having her. Scared of what death would mean. Scared of losing all the future he had yet to live.

Scared to be beaten by someone.

Scared to need her as much as he did.

Scared he would never know how far his love for her would go past today.

His fingers curled into her as he held her tight.

Warm tears slipped down his cheeks and onto her neck as she held him.

Her fingers scratched light caresses into his hair, touching every part of her front to him, to let him know she was here. To let him know it was okay to feel such heartbreak, because she felt it too.

His breakdown was short lived, and the raged gasps for air between tears turned into a need for comfort. A primal comfort Klaus knew as only one function. One that echoed in both their minds in their current situation.

His lips turned from sobs against her throat to kisses, making their way up her neck, revelling in the shiver that ran through her at her pulse points. He turned them to the tree; their tree, and pressed his lips with more purpose against her collarbone, her neck, her full lush and parted lips.

She felt the same need flow through her, the same need that pushed her to grasp at him, tugging his jacket down and sliding her hands under his shirt to feel the muscles flex as he moved on her. Hands at her hips, over her waist, up to her breasts, to knock the jacket and straps from her shoulders to free more skin for his kisses.

Klaus wanted to paint the entire canvas of her body with his lips and he wasn't satisfied with anything short of that.

Even human, he was still in control, turning her to drag the jacket down her arms, his kisses trailing over her shoulder blades as he tugged her top and bra down, letting them pool around her waist.

And then he was pressing her back to the tree, taking those pebbled buds on her chest between his fingers and mouth.

His tears had dried on his cheeks, his mindset turned to take that last slice of happiness, of togetherness before he lost it all.

Desperate and needy, he had his fingers knocking her away from a fumbling journey on her jeans and was popping the button and helping her shimmy them to the top of her boots.

"Please, please." she chanted, rubbing herself on his fingers as she tried to find the concentration to divest him of his own jeans.

It took four hands with poor co-ordination, but Caroline was finally hugging a tree, with Klaus' front to her back as he drove into her.

She cried praises and wants as he finally filled her.

It was raw, desperate and hot as hell, but Caroline felt the sadness as he slammed into her again and again.

This was the last piece of Klaus she would get, his true, antagonising but devoted self.

His hands were heavy, riding the curved of her body as he claimed her as he wanted since the last time they stood in this wood.

This was love Klaus understood.

Caroline understood the love of his closeness, of his vulnerability, of his last wish to be awaiting her arrival in the only place he wanted to take her.

The emotions gripped her tight.

She could hear his breathing speed up, the sluggish heart rate rocketed into a fluttering sprint.

His lips were praying to her neck, whispering things he would never admit to; words of adoration and love he felt.

One.

Last.

Time.

Tears painted her cheeks as kisses coloured her skin.

Turned away from Klaus entirely, she hid her sorrow in the bark of the tree, the sobs covers in the moans of deep pleasure.

One.

Last.

Time.

"Love you." Klaus grunted against her. "I love you." he repeated.

* * *

Caroline had slept on the bed, laying on her side and fingers woven too tight with his cold ones.

He hadn't changed after she slipped from his mind; he looked exactly as he did when she left him, pale and dying.

His heart still beat but his conscious mind was gone.

There was nothing to pick up the vampire manipulation of his dreaming.

Caroline had tucked herself against his side, her head against his neck. She wouldn't leave him.

Caroline had slept, fingers woven with his. His state unchanged and cold. Pale and dying. His conscious mind had gone from her with the stuttering push of his pulse.

She had tucked herself into his body fully expecting to wake in the exact same position.

It wasn't so. Instead she awoke to a cold bed and a void where Klaus had been laid.

Her ears picked up no heartbeat within the house.

"Klaus?!" Panic flooded her, sparking her nerves into movement. She sped from the room into the lounge, where she heard the comforting, if glib, tones of the elder Michaelson sibling.

"Caroline, you may wish to join us outside." Elijah's voice came across as the polar opposite of how she felt.

She wasted no time and sped out the main door to find the dying man she had slept besides.

The porch door slammed hard against the wall without just cause, there was Klaus.

He stood naked and bloodied, wrestling a shifted wolf to the ground.

The earth was showered with red dew, streaks of sinew diluting the grass.

She turned to where Elijah and Rebekah sat on the porch, taking porcelain teacups from the shared table to their mouths, laughter on their smiles and eyes drinking in the fight.

More wolves approached, their growls adding to the symphony of carnage that broke the morning.

Klaus lifted his eyes to meet Caroline across the field.

His fangs were revealed with his grin, dark veins of a vampire highlighting his bright yellow irises. He ended the fight with his current competitor and crossed the field at vampire speed to embrace her, a cocky swing in each of his strides until he had her in his arms.

Without pause, he pressed her to the wall of the cabin. He took a second the drink her in; the health, the vitality, the vibrant concern for him. He captured her lips with scorching heat, molten lava passion and bowed her body to his, making her acutely aware of just how turned on her presence in a massacre could make him. She clung to him, blushing with awareness of his siblings.

A wolf growl broke their greeting and Klaus' chest rumbled with anger, the vibration scaring even her.

Klaus' eyes burned yellow before he was gone from her arms, diving his hand into fur and coming back out with an entire spinal column, a roar departing his lips and a grin that threatened to break his face.

He cared nothing for the blood that covered him, nothing for the limb he tore off the next contestant and nothing for the cries of pain that stilled the bird's morning chorus.

"Sit." Elijah encouraged, pulling out a chair at the table for Caroline.

She did, numbly.

"How is it possible?" she asked, tentatively resting on the wicker throne.

"I have a theory." Elijah offered, seating himself and pouring her coffee from the decanter. "Klaus was cursed to be what he hated the most for what he had done to the witch's husband."

"To be human." Caroline answered.

"A victim." he corrected. "And by experiencing that, he broke the curse."

"I cured Klaus, by trying to kill him?" she asked, entirely confused.

"Just a theory." Elijah repeated.

"But probably correct, you know how witches like their twisted mind fucks." Rebekah offered.

Wolves appeared from all angles, Caroline rose from her seat, but neither Original sibling moved.

"Shouldn't we help him?" she asked, concern rising.

But she didn't see the joy in Klaus' eyes. She didn't see the rise to the challenge that he craved.

"And deny him his slaughter?" Rebekah sneered. "I'm not spending the next decade in a box, thank you."

Caroline turned back to see the bloodied form of the hybrid king drop to the floor on all fours, grunt his pain as his inner wolf took over. His hands and feet turned to large paws, fur bursting from his body.

"After his time… impotent," the chosen word earned a deep growl from the bloodied snout of the grandstanding snout. "Niklaus has expressed very strongly that he feels he needs to do this himself."

"And the witch?" she asked, noting how Klaus dispatched another life and chased a follow on into the woods. "What about the witch?"

"Ah," Elijah turned his head to the left where Klaus had run off to. Caroline listened in as well, but unable to focus on anything but thudding paws and beating hearts. And then there was a very human shriek that died all too quickly to properly form. "I do believe Klaus is retrieving her now."

Caroline listening to a dying fight and the sounds of a dragged body as Klaus re-emerged from the woodlands. His teeth were locked in a female's throat. Black tattooes of magical glyphs littered what skin Caroline could see of the witch as she fought uselessly for freedom.

Like a royal presentation to his Queen, Klaus dropped the witch at the bottom of the porch steps, his eyes flashing to Caroline with a burning satisfaction.

Rebekah frowned at the leaking blood dripping onto the pale wood of the decking, but didn't say a word.

Klaus transformed back into his human self.

"See, now this is just sloppy for someone so cocky." Satisfied he had created enough physical pain, he added to the emotional one. "If you are going to mind control wolves, have the intelligence to know which ones are yours." he commented and knelt before the dying witch, watching the powerless rage fill her eyes. It was checkmate and both knew it.

Caroline felt a wave of relief rush through her; it was over. Klaus had outsmarted a witch, posed as one of her own wolves and taken her down from her podium. Pride swelled in her chest.

That man belonged to her.

That sadistic, antagonising, devil of a supernatural creature, was her man.

Said bloodied creature finally saw to end the witches suffering, plunging his hand into the bloodied chest, wrapped it around the loudly thumping heart and pulled it free.

Caroline surveyed the land, she had seen her fair share of death but not an inch of the scenery was void of blood splatter. She had never had a hand in something so graphic.

For Klaus, this was another Tuesday.

Klaus examined the heart he pulled free, but stood with it, presenting it as a trophy to his audience.

The heart was black as night.

But it looked solid as a rock, small as a pebble and glossed like a gemstone.

"The heart of Salam." Elijah narrated, leaning forward curious to inspect the piece. "How poetic."

"This is what you got cursed looking for?" Rebekah scoffed. "Are you kidding me?!"

But Klaus turned to face them with a grin, one that said he had planned it all along. One that bluffed completely.

But it echoed the family moto (or at least the one Caroline made up for them): The Michaelsons _always_ got what they wanted.

Klaus threw the heart to Elijah, like it had meant nothing to him, just another trifle in the world of the supernatural existence.

He turned to something more important: Caroline, a different lust consumed his eyes.

"Brother, sister. I do believe you may wish to leave the state." Both siblings stood, making their way off the porch with a huff of annoyance from Rebekah. "After all, you're not the quietest thing are you, Caroline?" he teased, the heart in his eyes smouldering her.

"Klaus." she warned, seeing the blood covered nakedness stalking her. "You need to shower before you are coming anywhere near me." she insisted.

He ignored her, like she knew he would. "Damn it Klaus. I do not want to stink of rotten wolf blood."

She twisted and ran for the bathroom, knowing full well, he would revile in the chase.

He tackled her into the standing shower.

"Round two love." he grinned, turning on the water above them. "And don't be afraid to scream how much you love me."

* * *

Hope this was good for you. Thank you so SO much for reading :)


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